David Shaw, 90, Writer from TV's Golden Age

David Shaw, who died Friday in Beverly Hills, Calif., at 90, was a prolific television scriptwriter of the 1950s and 1960s, when he was a mainstay of dramatic series such as "The Philco Television Playhouse" and "Playhouse 90."

Shaw won an Emmy Award in 1956 for his adaptation of "Our Town." Two years later, working for the series "Producers' Showcase," he scripted "The 80-Yard Run," which became a starring vehicle for Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. The script, which worked in flashback to tell the story of an oddly asymmetric marriage, was based on a short story by Shaw's older brother, Irwin Shaw. The elder Shaw was a novelist ("The Young Lions," "Rich Man, Poor Man") and occasional playwright who had preceded David Shaw to Hollywood. In the early 1960s, Shaw worked as a writer and editor for "The Defenders," a CBS series starring E. G. Marshall, where Shaw worked to hire blacklisted writers "every chance he got," the blacklisted screenwriter Frank Tarloff told the Hollywood Reporter in 1997. Tarloff, who died in 1999, and Shaw were among a handful of veteran Hollywood writers who for years lunched each Tuesday at the Mulholland Tennis Club. In 1998, a documentary about the group, "Funny Old Guys," was featured on HBO.

Shaw and Tarloff's connection went back at least to 1942, when the two collaborated on "They Should Have Stood in Bed," a gangster farce centered on horseplay. Brooks Atkinson wrote that he "thoroughly appreciated the knavish atmosphere of the play," which managed to complete just 11 performances. Shaw later contributed to the books of the musicals "Tovarich" (1963) and "Redhead" (1959), which won a Tony for Best Musical. He also wrote the 1969 film "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium."

Born Samuel David Shamforoff in Brooklyn, Shaw was a 1936 graduate of the Pratt Institute. After his first foray on Broadway, he wrote for radio serials, served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and then moved to Los Angeles, where he was an early participant in what would become known as television's golden age. Shaw's output slowed after the death of his first wife, Vivian Rosenthal, in 1969. He went back to his first love, painting, which he had studied at Pratt and, according to his family, always considered his true vocation.

David Shaw

Born August 27, 1916, in Brooklyn; died Friday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif.; survived by his wife, Maxine Stuart, two daughters, Liz Baron and Ellen Agress, a stepdaughter, Chris Ann Maxwell, and four grandchildren.