Biography
William Kelley was an American screenwriter and television producer. Born in Staten Island, New York, he began writing for television in the late 1960s and accumulated more than 150 credits, including episodes of Gunsmoke, Kung Fu, Columbo and T. J. Hooker.
Kelley is best known for his work on the 1985 film Witness, directed by Peter Weir and starring Harrison Ford. He shared the story credit with Earl W. Wallace and Pamela Wallace, and the screenplay credit with Wallace. The film earned the trio the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1986, as well as a Writers Guild of America Award.
He met Wallace while both were working on Gunsmoke in the 1970s; the Witness story originated from an earlier idea Kelley had developed for that series. Kelley also wrote several television films and produced episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard.
