Earl Hamner Net Worth
During his career, Earl Hamner was a popular and renowned television producer. He wrote several episodes of the TV series The Twilight Zone and was an author of several novels. In addition, he created the TV series Falcon Crest and The Waltons.
Earl Hamner was born in the United States on July 10, 1923. He is a native of Virginia. He died of cancer on March 24, 2016. He is survived by his wife Jane and his son Scott, himself a successful writer. He also has a daughter, Caroline Hamner.
Earl Hamner was born into an Italian immigrant family. He was raised in a small town in Virginia, where his father worked as a machinist in a factory. He graduated from the high school in Schuyler. The Great Depression hit the town hard. In the early ’50s, he started working in New York City and eventually moved to Hollywood. He married Jane Martin, a magazine editor, in 1954.
In addition to writing several novels, he wrote scripts for a variety of television shows. He adapted the Swiss children’s classic “Heidi” into a teleplay. He also penned a script for the television program “A Mother’s Gift”. He penned the script for NBC’s radio program “Biography in Sound”. He was a guest star on the Today Show and wrote scripts for a number of other TV programs.
He also authored the novel “The Homecoming,” which was turned into a television Christmas special in 1971. He based his parents’ lives on his own maternal Italian-American grandparents. His childhood in the Blue Ridge Mountains influenced his novel. He later adapted the book into a movie. His other books include the novel, “Peyton Place” and the book, “The Virginian.”
When he was a child, Earl Sr. walked six miles to the nearest bus stop. He was drafted into the US Army in 1943. He trained as a land mine defuser. He went on to become a member of the United States Marine Corps. He served in World War II and then retired from the service. He was also a radio writer for the WLW station in Cincinnati, Ohio. He lived in a boarding house in Waynesboro, Virginia, during the week. He took weekends off to visit his parents in Schuyler.
He grew up in a soapstone mining town in Virginia. His father had worked in the soapstone mines from birth until the company closed. When the company closed, the town was hit with a severe economy. The mines were not profitable. During the Great Depression, he found work as a machinist at a DuPont factory in Waynesboro. He began to travel back and forth to his hometown on the weekends. He met Rod Serling while he was in New York. He recommended Serling for the job. The two became friends and eventually met again.
When he was a student at the University of Cincinnati, Hamner studied radio. In the early ’50s, his first break in the entertainment industry came when he won a contest to write a script for a film. He subsequently wrote a script for a Dr. Christian radio program.