Don M. Mankiewicz | Screenwriter, 93

Don M. Mankiewicz, 93, a novelist and Oscar-nominated screenwriter who grew up in a fabled Hollywood family and went on to create TV's

Ironside

and

Marcus Welby, M.D.

, has died at his home in Monrovia, near Los Angeles.

Mr. Mankiewicz's death Saturday was caused by congestive heart failure, his son, John Mankiewicz, said.

His father was Herman J. Mankiewicz, the screenwriter behind Citizen Kane. His uncle was Joseph L. Mankiewicz, director of All About Eve and other classic films.

Early in his TV career, Mr. Mankiewicz wrote scripts for the drama series Playhouse 90. He was assigned to adapt F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon at least in part because he grew up steeped in its luminous, old-Hollywood setting.

While a number of entertainment figures emerged from the Mankiewicz dynasty, Don was drawn to politics and union activism. Active in the Writers Guild of America, he helped gain union representation for quiz-show writers.

"For that, the writers on Jeopardy! made him the answer to a question," said his son, John, an executive producer of the political drama House of Cards.

When guild writers went on strike in 2007 and 2008, Mr. Mankiewicz, then in his mid-80s, joined them on the picket line.

Mr. Mankiewicz received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation of I Want to Live!, a 1958 film about a prostitute falsely accused of murder. It was loosely based on the true story of Barbara Graham, who was put to death in California's gas chamber in 1955 and was known in headlines as "Bloody Babs."
- L.A. Times