Rock, Phillip 1927-2004
ROCK, Phillip 1927-2004
OBITUARY NOTICE—
See index for CA sketch: Born 1927 in Hollywood, CA; died of cancer-related health complications April 3, 2004, in Los Angeles, CA. Author. Rock was a screenwriter and novelist best known for his "Passing Bells" trilogy. As the son of silent film producer, director, and actor Joe Rock, it was natural that Rock's first work was for movies. Much of his childhood was spent in England, followed by military service in the U.S. Navy at the end of World War II. Rock broke into show business as a page for CBS television; he also took on small acting roles and was a film editor during his early years. His first major screen credit was for the 1953 movie Escape from Fort Bravo, and he also found some success with the 1961 science-fiction film Most Dangerous Man Alive. After his first novel, The Extraordinary Seaman (1967), was adapted as a movie that received poor reviews, Rock concentrated mostly on novel writing, though he also adapted screenplays for The Cheyenne Social Club, High Plains Drifter, and Dirty Harry into book form. After publishing the novel Flickers (1977), which was based on his father's life, Rock worked on his most acclaimed novels, The Passing Bells (1979), Circles of Time (1981), and A Future Arrived (1984), which together form a trilogy about the changing lives of an English family after World War I.
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Los Angeles Times, April 7, 2004, p. B10.