Harve Bennett

Harve Bennett (born Harvard Bennett Fischman; August 17, 1930 – February 25, 2015) was an American television and film producer and screenwriter.

Early years Bennett was born to a Jewish family in Chicago, Illinois, in 1930, the son of Kathryn (née Susman), a journalist, and Yale Fischman, a lawyer. Bennett then began his career as a production executive. He first worked at CBS in New York City and later moved to the programming department of ABC, becoming Vice President of Daytime Programming. Other series and miniseries he produced at Universal include Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), The Invisible Man (1975) and Gemini Man (1976). His projects at Columbia Pictures included the series Salvage 1 (1979) and the miniseries The Jesse Owens Story (1984).

While working at Columbia Pictures TV, Bennett was also brought to Paramount Pictures to work in their television division producing television series. One of his first productions for Paramount was a television miniseries for Paramount Domestic Television, A Woman Called Golda (1982), which was Ingrid Bergman's final role and which co-starred Leonard Nimoy. Star Trek II proved to be an enormous success, both in terms of the box office receipts and fan response.

Following the success of Star Trek II, Bennett served as producer on the next three Star Trek films: The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home—which for a long time stood as one of the most successful of the Star Trek films—and The Final Frontier. In addition to serving as producer, Bennett also wrote Star Trek III, co-wrote the story and screenplay for Star Trek IV, and co-wrote the story for Star Trek V.

Following Star Trek V, Bennett developed an idea for a sixth Star Trek film that would take a different approach from the previous films. His death occurred two days before that of Leonard Nimoy. He was interred at the Willamette National Cemetery.

Filmography