Biography
A.I. Bezzerides was an American novelist and screenwriter. Born Albert Isaac Bezzerides on 9 August 1908 in Samsun in the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey), he moved with his family to Fresno, California, before the age of two.
He began writing short stories while studying at the University of California, Berkeley, and published his first novel, The Long Haul, in 1938. Warner Bros. purchased the rights, leading to the 1940 film They Drive by Night. Bezzerides later wrote screenplays for several films, including Thieves' Highway (1949, adapted from his 1949 novel), On Dangerous Ground (1952), Sirocco (1951), Track of the Cat (1954) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955). He co-created the television series The Big Valley (1965–1969).
Bezzerides died on 1 January 2007 in Los Angeles, California.
