Radio Giant Norman Corwin Dies at 101

During a career that spanned more than 70 years, Norman Corwin wrote, produced and directed for radio, television, film and the stage.

His insightful writing earned Emmy and Golden Globe awards. He received an Academy Award nomination for his script for the 1956 film “Lust for Life,” the biography of Vincent van Gogh starring Kirk Douglas.

But radio was Corwin’s true passion.

“I find it difficult to turn down an offer to be heard,” he said in a 2001 interview on public radio. “Whether it’s an anniversary, whether it’s on the ending of a war, whatever the subject, I am ham enough to enjoy communicating to people, to an audience.”

Corwin, a creative giant of the Golden Age of Radio whose programs chronicling World War II are milestones in broadcasting, died Tuesday at his Los Angeles home of natural causes, according to the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism where Corwin remained a writer in residence until his death. He was 101.