Biography
John Furia Jr. was an American television writer and producer. Born in New York City, he graduated from Fordham University and began his career writing for anthology series including Playhouse 90 and Climax! before moving to California.
He contributed scripts to numerous series, including Bonanza (1959), The Twilight Zone (1959), Dr. Kildare, Hawaii Five-O, The Waltons and Kung Fu (1972). He co-developed the long-running series Hotel (1983) and served as showrunner on Kung Fu and other programmes. His film writing credits include The Singing Nun (1966) and the story for Change of Habit (1969).
Furia was president of the Writers Guild of America, West from 1973 to 1975 and later a professor and founding chair of the writing division at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He died in Los Angeles in 2009.
