Aaron Spelling (April 22, 1923 – June 23, 2006) was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling, through his eponymous production company Spelling Television, holds the record as the most prolific television writer and producer in US television history, with 218 producer and executive producer credits. Forbes ranked him the 11th top-earning deceased celebrity in 2009.

Biography

Spelling was born in Dallas, Texas. He was the son of Pearl (née Wald) and David Spelling, who were Jewish emigrants from Poland. His father worked as a tailor and changed his surname from Spurling to Spelling after emigrating to the United States. Spelling had three brothers: Sam, Max, and Daniel, and a sister, Becky.

At the age of eight, Spelling psychosomatically lost the use of his legs due to trauma caused by constant bullying from his schoolmates, and was confined to bed for a year. He made a full recovery.

After attending Forest Avenue High School in Dallas, he served in the United States Armed Forces during World War II. Decades later, his daughter Tori Spelling described a series of events that changed his life during his time in the U.S. Air Force.


I inherited my fear of flying from my father, who came by it honestly. He served in the U.S. Air Force and was on his way from Fort Worth, Texas, to an air base in Ohio when he came down with the flu. The flight surgeon pulled him off the plane -- he was too sick to fly. That plane to Ohio crashed, and everyone on it was killed. My father rented a car and drove straight from Fort Worth to Dallas to see his parents. But when he entered his childhood home, his mother opened the door and immediately fainted. The authorities had telephoned to tell the family that my father was dead. When she came to, she made him swear he'd never fly again. He promised. He was eighteen, and he never got on an airplane again.

Spelling later graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1949, where he was a cheerleader.

He married actress Carolyn Jones in 1953, in California. They divorced in 1964. Spelling married Candy Gene (née Marer) in 1968. The couple had daughter Tori in 1973 and son Randy in 1978.

In 1988, Spelling bought the 6-acre (2.4 ha) property of Bing Crosby's former Los Angeles house. He demolished the property and built a 123-room home on the lot in 1991. Known as "The Manor", it has 56,500 square feet (5,250 m) of floor space and is the largest single-family home in Los Angeles. Spelling's widow Candy listed the home for sale in 2008 for $150 million; heiress Petra Ecclestone ultimately purchased the property for $85 million in 2011.

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