Michael "Mike" Gray (1935 - 1st of May 2013) was a writer, screenwriter, cinematographer, film producer and director.

Film and TV

In 1965, Mike Gray and Jim Dennett co-founded "Film Group, a Chicago film production company. In 1968, the pair along with Howard Alk produced the award winning, cult classic "American Revolution 2" (1969), followed by the trio's "The Murder of Fred Hampton"(1969). After moving to California, Gray shot "The Gift" (1973), a documentary about the life and art of Marc Chagall. Gray then wrote the screenplay for the 1979 nuclear thriller "The China Syndrome" which opened twelve days before the Three Mile Nuclear Reactor disaster proving his gift for prophecy. He also wrote and directed "Wavelength" (1983), an independent science fiction film starring Robert Carradine, Cherie Currie, and Keenan Wynn and a soundtrack byTangerine Dream.

Gray next co-created the television series "Starman" (1986-87). Following "Starman", he became series writer/producer for the 1988-89 season of "Star Trek, The Next Generation". Gray was also second unit director on the 1993 film "The Fugitive" as well as writer of 1995's "Chain Reaction." Gray scripted "The Zone" and "Forget about Yesterday" in 2008 and was working with director Andy Davis and legendary film maker, Haskell Wexler on an as yet untitled documentary.

Books

Gray's books include; "The Warning" about the accident at Three Mile Island (1982), "Drug Crazy; how we got into this mess and how we can get out" (1998) "Angle of Attack" the biography of Harrison Storms and the true story of America's race to the moon (1992)"The Death Game; the luck of the draw" (2003). And "Busted" a book about the country's drug war was published in 2004.

Personal life

He lived in Los Angeles with his wife, Carol, a reporter for public radio. His son, Lucas, is a storyboard artist for The Simpsons.

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Like several other Hollywood realists, Mike Gray came from a documentary film background. His Chicago-Based Film Group chronicled the political violence of the 1960's, including the award-winning feature documentaries, AMERICAN REVOLUTION II, and THE MURDER OF FRED HAMPTON.  Gray grew up in the small farm town of Darlington, Indiana, and after graduating from Purdue University with an engineering degree in 1958, he worked in New York as an editor for AVIATION AGE.  In 1965 he joined with Jim Dennett to form The Film Group, a Chicago based production company.

Their work in TV commercials provided the foundation for a series of theatrical and television documentaries. The two men worked together on more than fifty film and television projects over the last two decades.  After moving to Hollywood in 1973, Gray began writing the screenplay that was to become the eerily prophetic CHINA SYNDROME.

His years of research were confirmed less than two weeks after the movie's release by the accident at Three Mile Island.  Gray went to Harrisburg to cover the TMI story for Rolling Stone magazine and collaborated on THE WARNING, (W.W. Norton) a definitive account of the accident based on 200 hours of interviews and 50,000 pages of transcripts from 5 government inquiries.  In 1981 Gray wrote and directed the theatrical feature, WAVELENGTH, a science fiction thriller starring Bobby Carradine and Keenan Wynn (New World). 

Gray's second book, ANGLE OF ATTACK: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon, (W.W. Norton) was purchased by Tom Hanks for the TV series, From the Earth to the Moon.  After six years of research and writing, Gray's seminal book, DRUG CRAZY: How We Got Into This Mess and How We Can Get Out (Random House, '98) had a major impact on the drug war debate. The paperback was released in the spring of 2000.  Gray's book, "Busted: Stone Cowboys, Narco-Lords, and Washington's War on Drugs" was published by Nation Books in 2002, and his book "The Death Game: Capital Punishment and the Luck of the Draw," was released by Common Courage Press in 2003. 

With James Hirsch, he completed two screenplays based on the books, Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon, and Accident at Three Mile Island.  Mike Gray lived in Los Angeles with his wife, Carol, a reporter for public radio. Their son, Lucas, is an animator for The Simpsons. 

The Organizer

This is a preview of a documentary feature for film and TV that Gray began working on in 1968. Over his last four decades he shot over 60 hours of video of this remarkable grass roots activist and believed it an important story for our time.

http://mike-gray.org/