---
name: "Gene L. Coon"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/gene-l-coon"
roles: ["Writer"]
born: "7 January 1924"
died: "8 July 1973"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
updated: "2026-09-16T15:53:37.423513+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Gene L. Coon

Writer. Born 7 January 1924 in Beatrice, Nebraska, USA. Died 8 July 1973.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer
- **Born:** 7 January 1924, Beatrice, Nebraska, USA
- **Died:** 8 July 1973
- **Also known as:** Lee Cronin

## Biography

Gene L. Coon (also credited as Lee Cronin) was an American screenwriter, television producer and novelist. Born on 7 January 1924 in Beatrice, Nebraska, he served in the US Marine Corps during the Second World War and the Korean War before studying radio communications and entering television writing in the mid-1950s.

He wrote for numerous series including *Zorro* (1957), *Have Gun – Will Travel* (1957), *Rawhide* (1959), *Wagon Train* and *Combat!* (1962). Coon joined the production of *Star Trek* (1966) as a writer and producer from the middle of the first season, contributing episodes and developing key elements of the series such as the Klingons, Khan Noonien Singh and aspects of the United Federation of Planets and the Prime Directive. He continued to write for the third season under the pseudonym Lee Cronin while under contract elsewhere. He died on 8 July 1973 in Los Angeles.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, memory-alpha.fandom.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Star Trek* (1966), Fi1m 83, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/star-trek-1966.md)

## Also known for

- *Zorro* (1957), Writer
- *The Killers* (1964), Screenplay
- *Combat!* (1962), Writer
- *No Name on the Bullet* (1959), Screenplay
- *Man in the Shadow* (1957), Writer
- *Rawhide* (1959), Writer
- *Have Gun, Will Travel* (1957), Writer

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/gene-l-coon