TV mega-producer Aaron Spelling dies

Aaron Spelling, the pioneering television producerbehind Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat and Dynasty, has died at age 83.

Spelling died Friday at his home in Los Angeles after suffering a stroke last Sunday.

Spelling was a one-time movie bit player who was nearly broke when he came to Hollywood in hopes of becoming an actor. When that failed, he turned to producing, and by 1980 he was worth an estimated $300 million US.

"Aaron's contributions in television are unequalled. To me, he was a dear friend and a truly genuine human being," said Jaclyn Smith in a statement.

Smith is the only original Charlie's Angels actress who stayed with the show for its entire five-year run. She played Kelly Garrett.

Spellingcreated an astonishingnumber of hit series, including The Mod Squad, Starsky and Hutch, Hart to Hart, Fantasy Island, Beverly Hills 90210, T.J. Hooker, Melrose Place and 7th Heaven.

Spelling also produced more than 140 made-for-TV movies, including one of his best known, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976), featuring a young John Travolta, as well as And the Band Played On (1992), based on the Randy Shilts book about the AIDS crisis.

'I have the lucky touch.' -Aaron Spelling

Healways felt grateful about his success: "I have the lucky touch. I think I'm the luckiest guy in the world," he once said.

The successful producer is survived by a daughter, actress Tori Spelling, who was cast in Beverly Hills 90210 as Donna, and son Randall, who appeared in Malibu Shores, another Spelling production.

Tori Spelling, whose real name is Victoria,recently married Canadian actor Dean McDermott. The two were married to other people when they met on a movie set. The couplemade an appearance last weekend in Toronto at the MuchMusic Video Awards, the same day her father suffered a stroke.

Her famesometimes eclipsed her father's, causing the producerto quip: "Now I'm known as Tori Spelling's father."

Poor beginnings

Aaron Spelling was born April 22, 1923, in Dallas "on the wrong side of the tracks," according to his 1996 autobiography. He was one of five children born to immigrant Jews from Poland and Russia.

By his own accounts, Spelling was a thin and sickly child who used his talent for storytelling to fend off neighbourhood bullies. After graduating from high school in 1942, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps andorganized entertainment for American troops in Europe.

Three years later, he returned to Dallas, enrolled in Southern Methodist University and joined a local comedy troupe, performing shows at the college and community centres. He graduated with a journalism degree in 1949.

Spelling would try out his luck in New York but after three months, he decided to head to the sunny climes of Los Angeles in 1950, eager to join in the burgeoning film industry.

He appeared in plays and acted in more than 40 TV shows, such as Gunsmoke and Dragnet, and 12 movies. Around the same time, he was dating an actress named Carolyn Jones who went on to become Morticia in The Addams Family. Jones urged him to focus on his writing. The couple later married but divorced in 1968. Jones died of cancer in 1983.

It was in 1968 that Spelling married his second wife, Carole Marer, known as "Candy," who is the mother of his two children.

Spelling's star as a producer was climbing during the 1960s with his first hit series, Burke's Law, about a millionaire detective. He then teamed up with Danny Thomas to produce The Mod Squad and in 1969, he began an exclusive 18-year contract with ABC.

Spelling would soon start his own company with Leonard Goldberg and the duo cranked out a string of hits for ABC, which came to be known as the "Aaron Broadcasting Company" in production circles.

Critics would note that most of his shows were "eye candy" and vacuous, but Spelling contends he knew what the audience needed.

"I think [the audience] likes to escape into a glamorous world … and I hope that's what I gave them," said Spelling.

With his runaway success, Spelling and his wife were able to build a 5,085-square-metre chateau in Hollywood. The construction cost was estimated at $12 million US. The 15-metre-high mansion includes a bowling alley, pool, tennis court, screening room and gym.

The Spellings say their home is the size it is because they are both claustrophobic and Aaron hates to fly, so neither travels.

In total, Spelling has produced more than 3,000 TV episodes and 10 theatrical films, including Mr. Mom, Loose Cannons and Soapdish.

He is also survived by a brother.