Son of screenwriter
Bess Meredyth and writer/director
Wilfred Lucas, and the adopted son of director
Michael Curtiz, Lucas grew up in
Southern California, where he attended a number of schools, including
Urban Military Academy,
Pacific Military Academy, and
Beverly Hills High School. After a failed attempt at college, he began his Hollywood career with a job as an apprentice script clerk at
Warner Brothers. He is best remembered for the work he did on
Star Trek: The Original Series as a writer, producer and director. He wrote four of the episodes broadcast from 1967 to 1969: "
The Changeling", "
Patterns of Force", "
Elaan of Troyius", and "
That Which Survives". He also directed three of the episodes broadcast in 1968: "
The Ultimate Computer", "
The Enterprise Incident" and "Elaan of Troyius". During 1959–1960 he worked in Australia on the TV series
Whiplash, directing numerous episodes of the series (several of which were written by later
Star Trek creator
Gene Roddenberry). In 1951 he married Australian born actress
Joan Winfield. Together they raised three children. After her death in 1978, he remarried. He died in
Los Angeles on 19 October 2002 from
leukemia. After his death in 2002, he was cremated and his ashes were later launched into space on a suborbital flight in 2007. They were subsequently launched on an orbital flight on August 2, 2008, however the rocket failed two minutes after launch. ==Star Trek episode credits==