Author, director, composer and producer, educated in public schools. He was a newspaperman for ten years, and then a writer, director and producer for CBS in New York. He served as chief of Special Projects for United Nations Radio, and was presented with a One World Award. Joining ASCAP in 1952, his chief collaborators included Deems Taylor, Bernard Rogers, Lyn Murray, and Maurice Goldman.He died two days after the airing of 60 Minutes: Running the War/The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh (2011), produced by his old employer CBS News, which largely discredited the depiction of Van Gogh's death as it was presented in his screenplay for Lust for Life (1956).