Robert Wright Campbell (9 June 1927, Newark, New Jersey - 21 September 2000, Monterey), often credited as R. Wright Campbell, was an American screenwriter, author and occasional actor. He was the brother of actor William Campbell and brother in law of Judith Campbell Exner.
Campbell studied painting at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute then was drafted into the US Army during the Korean War. When he asked his brother William how much he earned for acting, he went to Hollywood after his discharge.[1]
Campbell began writing for anthology series such as Loretta Young Theatre and Warner Bros. Television westerns such as Maverick and Bronco. Through his brother William, Campbell met Roger Corman and wrote several screenplays for him beginning with Five Guns West (1955). He received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay Man of a Thousand Faces, the biography of Lon Chaney.
Campbell left screenwriting and turned to novels after visiting Carmel, California where he moved to.[2] His first novel was The Spy Who Sat and Waited. He wrote several novels of Los Angeles that he called "La La Land" with a hero named James Whistler in Alice in La La Land and In La La Land We Trust, a series of Jimmy Flannery novels beginning with Junkyard Dog (awarded the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original) and two Jake Hatch novels.[3]