---
name: "William Read Woodfield"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/william-read-woodfield"
roles: ["Writer"]
born: "21 January 1928"
died: "24 November 2001"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 84
updated: "2026-09-16T16:08:59.306088+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 Read Woodfield

Writer. Born 21 January 1928 in San Francisco, California, USA. Died 24 November 2001.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer
- **Born:** 21 January 1928, San Francisco, California, USA
- **Died:** 24 November 2001
- **Active:** 1966–1971
- **Works often with:** Alf Kjellin, Bernard L. Kowalski, Howard Berk, Jackson Gillis, Jerrold L. Ludwig, John T. Dugan

## Biography

William Read Woodfield (1928–2001) was an American television writer, producer and photographer. He began his career in photography, taking portraits of film stars for magazines including Life and Esquire, before moving into screenwriting in the 1960s.

Woodfield formed a writing partnership with Allan Balter and contributed scripts to series such as *Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea*, *Lost in Space* (1965) and *The Time Tunnel* (1966). He joined *Mission: Impossible* (1966) as a writer and story consultant, later becoming a producer; the pair helped shift the series towards elaborate confidence games and illusions drawn from Woodfield’s interest in magic. He also wrote episodes of *Columbo* (1971).

Woodfield received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his work on *Mission: Impossible* in 1968, along with further nominations. He died in Los Angeles in 2001.

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

## On Fi1m (2)

- *Columbo* (1971), Fi1m 86, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/columbo.md)
- *Mission: Impossible* (1966), Fi1m 82, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/mission-impossible-1966.md)

## Also known for

- *The Time Tunnel* (1966), Writer
- *Lost in Space* (1965), 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-read-woodfield