Early life Born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, William Link was the son of Elsie (née Roerecke) and William Theodore Link, a textile broker. His mother had German
Huguenot heritage. Link discovered late in life that his father's parents were
Jewish. Link's niece, Amy, examined a suitcase William Theodore had left to his son, which they had kept in their attic. She opened it in 2011 and it turned out to contain
genealogical research and evidence done by William Theodore during
World War II. Amy had discovered that Link's paternal grandparents were Jewish. Link earned a degree from the
University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business prior to serving in the
United States Army from 1956 to 1958.
Levinson partnership William Link and
Richard Levinson met on their first day of junior high school. Each had enjoyed doing magic tricks and other students repeatedly mentioned to each of them that they should meet. They began writing together soon after. In high school, they created radio scripts. While studying at the University of Pennsylvania, they wrote film criticism for the college newspapers. Some of their short stories were published in
Playboy. The
character of Columbo was first introduced by Link and Levinson in a 1960 episode of
The Chevy Mystery Show. For the
Jessica Fletcher character they created in 1983 when CBS contacted them to create a new mystery TV show, they found inspiration in a mix of
Agatha Christie and her
Miss Marple character. At first, they wanted
Jean Stapleton for the role, but she ended up declining the offer. and on
Columbo when they came up with stories to be scripted by their collaborators. They co-wrote the
Broadway musical magic show
Merlin starring
Doug Henning and co-scripted the film
The Execution of Private Slovik. == Accolades and honors==