Donald Eugene Balluck, an episodic television scribe whose career spanned three decades, died April 7 from lung cancer and emphysema in Burbank. He was 70.
Balluck wrote and served as executive story consultant for such popular 1980s television series as “Little House on the Prairie” and “Fantasy Island.” He wrote for many police dramas, including “Starsky and Hutch” and “Hawaii Five-O” in the 1970s and “Magnum P.I.” and “The New Mike Hammer” in the 1980s.
He started as a stage actor and playwright, but moved his family to L.A. in 1960 to concentrate on a career in television. Balluck wrote his first episode of “Dr. Kildare” in 1964, and in the early 1970s became executive story editor for “High Chaparral.”
A member of the Writers Guild, he served on the Board of Governors of the Television Academy and received a 1982 Spur Award for an episode of “Father Murphy.”
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He is survived by two daughters.
