Donald G. (Don) Ingalls Collection of Scripts

Donald G. "Don" Ingalls was born on July 29, 1918, in Humbolt, Nebraska, to Park and Luella Ingalls. He spent most of his childhood in Stafford, Kansas, but moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s and attended North Hollywood High School. Upon graduation, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps and served as a bomber pilot during World War II. He then joined the Los Angeles Police Department.

Since childhood, Ingalls dabbled in writing and he wrote for Desert Magazine and served as a columnist for The Valley Times in Hollywood and an editor of LAPD’s The Beat magazine. Ingalls transitioned his talents as a writer to the new field of television where he spent over 35 years as a prolific film and television writer and producer. He wrote for many television shows including Bonanza, The Big Valley, Fantasy Island, Gunsmoke, Have Gun-Will Travel, Marcus Welby M.D., Police Story, Star Trek, and The Virginian.

Ingalls retired in 1987, and moved with his wife Mary, to Olympia, Washington. He then wrote a novel called The Watchers on the Mountain. Ingllas was a man of strong faith and would often use his talents for the church. He also would mentor and encourage young writers. Ingalls passed away on March 10, 2014, in Olympia, Washington, after a long illness.