---
name: "William P. McGivern"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/william-p-mcgivern"
roles: ["Writer"]
born: "6 December 1918"
died: "18 November 1982"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
updated: "2026-09-16T16:50:06.678080+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."
---

# William P. McGivern

Writer. Born 6 December 1918 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Died 18 November 1982.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer
- **Born:** 6 December 1918, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- **Died:** 18 November 1982
- **Also known as:** William Peter McGivern, William McGivern, Bill Peters

## Biography

William Peter McGivern was an American novelist and television scriptwriter. He published more than twenty novels, mostly mysteries and crime thrillers, some under the pseudonym Bill Peters. He also wrote more than one hundred science-fiction stories in the 1940s and 1950s.

McGivern's novels were adapted for films including *The Big Heat* (1953), *Odds Against Tomorrow* (1959), *Shield for Murder* (1954) and *Rogue Cop* (1954). In the early 1960s he moved to Los Angeles to write for film and television. His credits include episodes of the series *Kojak* (1973), *Adam-12* (1968) and *Ben Casey*, and the films *I Saw What You Did* (1965), *The Wrecking Crew* (1968) and *Brannigan* (1975). He died in Palm Desert, California, in 1982.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Kojak* (1973), Fi1m 80, Story, Teleplay, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/kojak.md)

## Also known for

- *The Big Heat* (1953), Original Story
- *Brannigan* (1975), Screenplay
- *Odds Against Tomorrow* (1959), Novel
- *The Wrecking Crew* (1968), Screenplay
- *I Saw What You Did* (1965), Screenplay
- *Adam-12* (1968), 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/william-p-mcgivern