William Douglas Lansford

William Douglas Lansford (July 13, 1922 in Los Angeles – May 22, 2013) was an American author, screenwriter, and film producer. Biography Born to a Scots Irish and English father and a Mexican mother, Lansford was raised in an ethnically Mexican neighborhood in East Los Angeles. He had virtually no contact with his father, a Los Angeles policeman until he was 14. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1940 and served with the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade in Iceland, the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion on Guadalcanal, and Bougainville where he was promoted to sergeant and in the 5th Marine Division on Iwo Jima. Following the war, Lansford attended college under the G.I. Bill and worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News.