Jolley, Norman
Entry updated 9 January 2023. Tagged: Film, TV, People.
(1916-2002) US actor, film writer and producer who worked in many areas including Westerns and mysteries; his work of genre interest begins with his on-screen portrayal of the Villain Agent X in the Television series Space Patrol (1950-1955). He quickly became head screenwriter for this series, employing his background in engineering (from a University of Wisconsin extension course) to embellish his scripts with such Inventions as a workable rock-crushing device or a Force-Field powered "space knife" Weapon. A few of his scripts contained such imaginative ideas as a silicon-based Alien intelligence and a planet-sized living organism (see Living Worlds). He later went on to co-produce (uncredited) the Television Anthology Series Science Fiction Theatre (1955-1957), for which he also wrote several episodes.
In Cinema, Jolley scripted the films I've Lived Before (1956) directed by Richard Bartlett, about Reincarnation; and The Monolith Monsters (1957) directed by John Sherwood, about gigantic, life-threatening meteoric crystals. He felt it important to get the hard science correct and not to venture too far from the scientifically possible. [LW]
Norman Dean Jolley
born Adel, Iowa: 21 February 1916
died Scottsdale, Arizona: 13 August 2002
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