Stephen Joseph Cannell
13 min read
Reading time
2,512
Words
Published
16
Film credits
22
Books
7
Awards
Stephen J. Cannell overcame undiagnosed dyslexia to write over 300 television scripts, create The Rockford Files 1974, and win a Primetime Emmy Award. He also authored best-selling police novels and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1986. Cannell’s career spanned decades, producing series like The Greatest American Hero and Wiseguy.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Stephen J. Cannell — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Stephen J. Cannell by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Stephen J. Cannell — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Undiagnosed dyslexia made school a struggle for Stephen J. Cannell, raised in Pasadena, California, where his father ran an interior design firm. He was held back multiple times and even failed English, but he wrote in a yearbook that his ambition was to become an author. He graduated from high school and earned a Bachelor of Science in journalism from the University of Oregon in 1964.
Cannell sold his first story ideas to Mission: Impossible 1966 and his first script to It Takes a Thief 1968. His first steady job was as a story editor on Adam-12 1968. He created the character Jim Rockford for a script on Toma 1973, which ABC rejected but later became the pilot for the NBC series The Rockford Files 1974. He later created or co-created over two dozen television series, including The Greatest American Hero 1981 and Wiseguy 1987. He also wrote best-selling police novels and acted in shows like Magnum, P.I. 1980 as Security Chief Ray Lemon.
Cannell married his high school sweetheart, Marcia Clifford Finch, on August 8, 1964. They remained married until his death in 2010. He had five children: Tawnia McKiernan, Chelsea Cannell, Cody Cannell, and Derek Cannell, who died at age 15 in 1982 after a sandcastle collapsed on him. Cannell maintained a room in his home where only other writers were allowed.
The Rockford Files is a landmark in television drama, one of many series Cannell created. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television on January 14, 1986. His production company logo, showing him typing and tossing paper, became widely recognized. David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, said no person loved writing as much as Cannell. Cannell wrote over 300 scripts and created two dozen series, making him one of television’s most prolific writers and producers.
The complete filmography of Stephen J. Cannell — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Stephen J. Cannell — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Stephen J. Cannell's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
A wall of memorable lines from Stephen J. Cannell — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
Whenever Something Unfortunate Happens in My Business Dealings I Never Sit There and Observe It as a Problem… the First Thing I Do When Something Goes Wrong Is Say: ‘Hey, I Can Use This!…’
Because I Was a Private Company, I Always Looked Long-term. and Our Meetings at the Cannell Company Had a Theme… It Wasn’t About Doing What Was in Our Best Interest, It Was About Doing What Was Right. We Were One of the First Companies to Hire an ‘Assistant Location Manager’ Onto Our Productions with Sole Purpose of Making Sure the Locations We Rented Were Never ‘Burnt’. the Job Description in the ALM Manual Was Simply to Make Sure the People Who Owned the Property Had a Good Experience with a Cannell Project and Would Welcome Us Back.And When the Television Market Crashed in the Mid-80s and the Economics Were Bad, I Was One of Few Who Saw the Signs and Got Out of Town. Many of the Other Television Companies Went Bankrupt…I Went to Canada and Was Able to Stay in Business.
So I Thought, Television, My Gawd! There’s a Thousand Episodes of This Written Each Year. I Otta’ Be Able to Get in There, and If I Grin – I Was a Good Salesman – I Otta’ Be Able to Pick-off One or Two Assignments. It Was the Only Way I Figured I Could Afford a Family.
…Even Though I Was Flunking English Because I Couldn’t Spell; in My High School Year Book Under Ambitions I Had Written ‘Author’. When I Went off to College I Ran into a Guy at the University of Oregon Named Ralph Salisbury Who Was My First Creative Writing Instructor and He Turned All the Lights on for Me. He Was the First Teacher in All My Years Who Actually Said I Had Talent. Some People Don’t Know This, but I Have Dyslexia.
I’m a Very Conservative Business-man. I Don’t Work on Credit. My Father Was the Guy Who Taught Me How to Think Straight, Not to Delude Myself and Think I Was Larger Than I Was. I Never Bought a New Car Until I Was 45-Years Old…I Bought Used Because My Father Always Said: ‘Why Do You Want to Buy a Car, Drive It Around the Block and Lose Thirty Percent of Its Value’? …Don’t Get Me Wrong, I Had Great Used Cars: XKEs, Jags… but They Were All Used. All My Friends Were Out Leasing New Mercades and Other High-end Cars…and There I Was Buying Used; and Writing a Check for It! There! Give Me the Car! That Was All My Dad’s Thinking and I Ran the Company That Way.
On the Writer’s Guild Strike 1987: I Called up the Then President of the Guild and Said: ‘Listen, I’m a Writer and a Producer. How Can We Make This Work’? I Told Him I’d Open the Cannell Books to Him so He Could See There Wasn’t More Money and the Networks Were Just as Stretched… as a Guild Member, the Guild Didn’t Want to Hear What I Had to Say and They Never Took Me up on the Offer to See the Bottom-line. …I Think They Were Scared of What They Might Have Seen.
The Only Time I Had to Get Rough with a Network Was During Production on One of My Shows. What Had Happened, Was, the Budget We Agreed Upon Wasn’t Working, so I Called the Network Chief and Said: Listen, Either Increase the Budget or I’m Delivering a Show That Looks Really Cheap… Well, He Was Upset but Told Me He’d Readjust the Numbers – Quietly – but He Could Only Do It at the End of the First Season … so I Got My Team in the Meeting Room and We Agreed There Was No Reason to Distrust This Guy and We’d Take His Word He’d Come-through with the Increased License Fee … and He Did.
Most of My Things Strike to Me the Same Theme Which Is Not to Take Yourself so Seriously That You Can’t Grow.
I’m Generally a Very Happy Guy, Because I’m Doing What I Want. I’m Willing to Tell You That There Are People Who Are Much Better Than I Am in Writing. I Don’t Have to Be the Fastest Gun in the West.
Culture Changed, and as That Happened so Did Our Need for a Hero. That Square Jawed Good Guy Began to Look Like an Idiot to Us.
I Never Waited for My Irish Cream Coffee to Be the Right Temperature, with a Storm Happening Outside and My Fireplace Crackling … I Wrote Every Day, at Home, in the Office, Whether I Felt Like It or Not, I Just Did It.
Having a Support System Is Huge for Writers. My Parents Were Always Encouraging and Told Me They Were Behind Me, Whether or Not I Made It in the Business. My Wife Was Always There for My Successes and Failures. It’s Easy to Find Hundreds of Reasons to Quit Writing. Surrounding Yourself with People That Want You to Succeed Helps You to Write On.
Cable Is the Way to Go in the Future. It Gives Writers a Lot More Freedom and Flexibility to Try New Things. Channels Like HBO, Showtime, USA and TNT, Among Others, Are Producing High Quality Entertainment That Never Would Have Hit the Screen 20 or so Years Ago. I Think It’s a Great Time to Be a Writer in the TV Industry.
It’s Flattering in a Way That People Want to See New Versions of the A-Team and 21 Jump Street. I Think It’s Nostalgia of How Simple and Innocent the Shows Were. It Takes People Back to a Time When Things Weren’t so Complicated.
Novel Writing Gives Me a Different Satisfaction That I Never Found with TV Writing. Every Word, Every Story, Every Description, Is Mine. in TV Writing, You Have to Make Sacrifices and Compromises to Appease the Producers and Executives. It’s Much More Collaborative. at This Point in My Career, I Want to Do Things on My Own Terms and Pace.
Little-known facts about Stephen J. Cannell — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Derek, Cannell’s oldest child, died at age 15 on April 4, 1982, after a sandcastle he was building collapsed, causing suffocation.
Cannell earned a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, in 1964.
In the early 1980s, Cannell’s office was on the Paramount Studios lot, while his series were distributed by Universal Studios.
Cannell maintained a room in his home that was exclusively for other writers to enter.
The logo for his production company featured Cannell at a typewriter, typing, then pulling the paper and tossing it into the air, where it transformed into the company logo, with a shelf of awards visible in the background.
Marcia Clifford Finch, Cannell’s wife, was his high school sweetheart.
Survivors include his wife Marcia Finch; daughters Tawnia McKiernan and Chelsea Cannell; son Cody Cannell; and three grandchildren.
Cannell received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, on January 14, 1986.
The surname Cannell means cinnamon in French.
Cannell was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Stephen J. Cannell.
Celebrities similar to Stephen J. Cannell — same craft, ranked by reach.
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