Russell Thacher

Russell Thacher (c. 1919 – October 1, 1990) was an American author and film producer who co-produced the films Soylent Green and The Last Hard Men together with Walter Seltzer.

Born in Hackensack, New Jersey, Thatcher attended New York University and Bucknell University, before serving in the United States Navy during World War II.^[1][2]

In addition to working as an editor at Omnibook Magazine and the Book-of-the-Month Club, Thacher authored the novels The Captain, The Tender Age and A Break in the Clouds. The Captain, Thacher's first novel, is set on board a Landing Ship, Tank in the Pacific Theater during World War II. The novel is notable for its early positive portrayal of homosexuality, exemplified in the characters of two crew members, though male eroticism is an undercurrent throughout the book. It was published by Macmillan in New York in 1951 and Allan Wingate in London in 1952, with subsequent paperback editions.^[3] In The Tender Age, Thacher writes about the experiences of a 17-year-old boy growing up in a town in New Jersey.^[4]

In 1963, he was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, originally working for the firm in New York City before heading out west, where he was the studio's vice president for production.^[2] By the early 1970s was working on his own as a film producer. Together with Walter Seltzer, Thacher co-produced Soylent Green, the 1973 science fiction thriller, and The Last Hard Men, a 1976 Western prison break film; both films starred Charlton Heston.^[1] Other films he produced include Travels with My Aunt and The Cay, for which he wrote the teleplay.^[2]

A resident of Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, Thacher died in Los Angeles at the age of 71 due to complications resulting from abdominal surgery, on October 1, 1990.^[1]

References

1. Staff. "Russell Thacher, 71, Producer and Writer", The New York Times, October 4, 1990. Accessed November 25, 2017. "He was born in Hackensack, N.J., and was a graduate of Bucknell University. In World War II, he served as an ensign in the Navy."
2. Staff. "Russell Thacher; Film Producer and Novelist, 71", Los Angeles Times, October 4, 1990. Accessed November 25, 2017. "Thacher died Monday at UCLA Medical Center of complications from abdominal surgery.Born in Hackensack, N.J., and educated at Bucknell and New York Universities, Thacher wrote three novels early in his career, The Captain, The Tender Age and A Break in the Clouds."
3. Gunn, Drewey Wayne. Gay American Novels, 1870–1970: A Reader's Guide, p. 55. McFarland & Company, 2016. ISBN 9781476625225. Accessed November 25, 2017. "55 Russel Thacher The Captain 1951.... Thacher's Captain deserves to be better known. The novel is about many things, especially about the way men operate under stress, but it is especially about the perils and the rewards of male-male affection."
4. Sullivan, Richard. "The Road to Maturity; The Tender Age. By Russell Thacher. 277 pp. New York: The Macmillan Company. $3.", The New York Times, October 5, 1952. Accessed November 25, 2017. "THE old, standard themes permit infinite variation; and when the variation is fresh and alive the old, standard theme comes all alive and bright and new. The theme of The Tender Age is the one of a boy's growing up."