Clair Huffaker

Clair Walter Huffaker was born in Magna, Utah, on 24 September 1926, the son of Clair Huffaker (1908-1960) and his wife Orlean Bird (1907-1965). Huffaker grew up in Salt Lake City He served in the Navy during World War II in the South Pacific and after the war became an Honours student at Princetown and then at Columbia University in New York. Before going on to study at several continental universities, Huffaker joined Time, Inc. and wrote for both Time and Life. After his return to New York he edited several magazines at one time before becoming a freelance writer.

Author of over 200 stories, numerous feature and magazine articles in pulp and men's adventure magazines. No less than seven of his novels were made into major motion pictures: Seven Ways from Sundown (1960 starring Audie Murphy), Flaming Star (1960 starring Elvis Presley), Posse from Hell (1960 starring Audie Murphy), Rio Conchos (1964 starring Stuart Whitman) and The War Wagon (1967), starring John Wayne. Huffaker also wrote two further John Wayne movies: The Comancheros (1961) and Hellfighters (1968); he also wrote the original screenplay Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966). Huffaker's later screenplays include One Hundred Rifles (1969), Flap (1970 starring Anthony Quinn), adapted from his later novel Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian (1967), The Deserter (1971) and Chino (1976).

Huffaker also wrote for television series such as Rawhide, The Virginian and Bonanza.

Clair was married twice: first to Winifred Dutton Moore in 1951, with whom he had a son, Lance Clark Huffaker (1952-1980); and secondly to Joyce Lousin Rainboldt in 1959. He died of an aneurysm in Los Angeles, California, on 2 April 1990, aged 63.