A decorated WWII fighter pilot and former commercial pilot before becoming a sergeant with the L.A.P.D., Roddenberry graduated from composing speeches for the LA police chief to writing episodes of a number of 1950s TV series including "Dragnet" and "Naked City". He served as head writer for "Have Gun, Will Travel", produced a short-lived dramatic series about the peacetime Marine Corps ("The Lieutenant", NBC 1963-64) and gained pop culture immortality as the creator, executive producer and writer of the seminal, if relatively short-lived, sci-fi series "Star Trek". Long on character, humor and "issues" and short on its special effects budget, "Star Trek" not only took viewers on a journey into "space, the final frontier" but also gradually spawned a major entertainment industry that began with fan clubs and conventions, expanded into merchandising and culminated in a popular series of feature films (seven as of 1996) and three sequel TV series.
Roddenberry made his debut as a feature film producer and screenwriter with "Pretty Maids All in a Row" (1971). This silly but engaging Roger Vadim-directed black comedy starred Rock Hudson as a high school coach-cum-guidance counselor who advises a sexually frustrated student while a series of murders of pretty female students plague the school. Roddenberry spent much of the 1970s producing and writing a number of TV-movie pilots for sci-fi and supernatural series that would never be: "Genesis II" (CBS, 1973); "Planet Earth" (ABC, 1974); "The Questor Tapes" (NBC, 1974); and "Spectre" (NBC, 1977).
Meanwhile "Star Trek" had finally found an adoring mass audience through the medium of daily syndication. Its vogue grew from cult to mainstream as grass roots fandom gave way to an increasingly well-organized juggernaut that would not be appeased by a Saturday morning cartoon "Star Trek" (NBC, 1973-75) or numerous comic-books and novels of continuing adventures. Only a TV series revival would do or perhaps a feature film. With Paramount brass reassured by the box-office success of several sci-fi epics of the late 70s, Roddenberry produced "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979). Rushed through post-production for a Christmas season release, the film boasted impressive special effects from Douglas Trumbull but was otherwise wildly uneven and dramatically shaky. Nonetheless, audiences were enthusiastic about seeing the old gang. The film's success led to a series of popular "Star Trek" features with Roddenberry serving as executive consultant on subsequent installments.
Roddenberry's second wife, actress Majel Barrett, played Nurse Chapel in the original "Star Trek" series and the Betazoid mother of Marina Sirtis' Counselor Deanna Troi in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (syndicated, 1987-94), the first sequel series Roddenberry created and executive produced in the 1980s. Unlike its illustrious predecessor, this series was an immediate hit. Indeed, among the very young, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" has become "Star Trek". In any event, with subsequent spin-off series and features, Roddenberry's dream has lived long and prospered. Indeed, it has outlived his physical presence on the planet, as Roddenberry died of a massive blood clot and cardiac arrest on October 24, 1991.