Jack Wrather

John Devereaux Wrather Jr. (May 24, 1918 – November 12, 1984), was an entrepreneur and petroleum businessman who became a television producer and later diversified by investing in broadcast stations and resort properties.

He is best known for producing The Lone Ranger, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, and Lassie television series in the 1950s as well as marrying actress Bonita Granville.

[1][3][2] After the war, he met his old roommate, actor Don Castle, who was struggling in Hollywood, and bought the film rights to Cornell Woolrich's short story "Two Men in a Furnished Room" and set up Jack Wrather Pictures Inc. to film it (as The Guilty (1947)), starring Castle and Wrather's new wife Bonita Granville.

[4] He bought a home in Hollywood[2] and by 1955, he had produced six more movies, including High Tide, Perilous Waters, Strike It Rich and Guilty of Treason.

[1] Wrather purchased 70% of television station KOTV in Tulsa, Oklahoma from fellow oil millionaire George Cameron.

Wrather knew nothing about the management of a station and offered to increase Alvarez and Hill to 50% of the stock in exchange for their services.

Wrather-Alvarez also owned WJDW-TV in Boston, and donated it in 1965 to the WGBH Educational Foundation, which operates it as the PBS station WGBX-TV.

[7] Wrather further diversified his holdings by building or buying resort hotels and other properties throughout the United States.

The company owned an extensive library of easy listening music and one of the world's largest recording plants.

[8] In the early 1980s, Wrather purchased, restored and made tourist attractions of the Spruce Goose and the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.

[10] Wrather died of cancer at age 66 on November 12, 1984, at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California.

[2] His funeral was held at the Roman Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills and[2] he was buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery, in Culver City, California.