Les Crutchfield

Leslie Marcellus Crutchfield (January 23, 1916 – October 6, 1966) was an American scriptwriter for radio and television series between the late 1940s and mid-1960s, most notably for the Western series Gunsmoke, which aired on CBS Radio from 1952 to 1961 and on CBS Television from 1955 to 1975. Crutchfield is credited with writing a total of 138 radio and television stories and scripts for Gunsmoke, a body of work that is second only to the number of episodes written by John Meston, the series' co-creator. While Gunsmoke is the most prominent showcase for Crutchfield's writing talents, he also composed original stories and adapted works by other authors for the CBS radio anthology series Escape as well as other weekly radio and television series and at least two feature films.