Lessing grew up in New York City, and played a great deal of chess as a youth, reaching national master strength.
[2] He won the 1967 Santa Monica Chess Club championship, and the 1967 United States Senior Open, at which time he had a rating of 2207.
Lessing wrote actively for television from its pioneering days in 1950 in New York, and moved to California to continue his career until 1979.
Shows he wrote screenplays for include Hawaii Five-O, The Fugitive, Lost in Space, Bonanza, The Nurses, The F.B.I., Baretta, Cannon, Dragnet, Eight is Enough, Shirley Temple's Storybook, The Adventures of Ellery Queen, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E..[4] He also wrote the play 36, which was performed all over the United States.
Lessing, along with International Master Anthony Saidy, wrote the book The World of Chess, published in 1974 by Random House.