He would go on to earn more than 150 credits in television including episodes of Judd for the Defense, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Kung Fu, Serpico, Petrocelli and Fantasy Island.
Producer Edward S. Feldman, who was in a "first-look" development deal with 20th Century Fox in the mid-1980s, first received the screenplay for Witness which had been written in 1983 by Kelley and Earl W. Wallace.
Originally entitled Called Home (which is the Amish term for death), it ran for 182 pages, the equivalent of three hours of screen time.
[6] Feldman sent the screenplay to Harrison Ford's agent Phil Gersh, who contacted the producer four days later and advised him his client was willing to commit to the film.
Feldman's first choice of director was Peter Weir, but he was involved in preproduction work for The Mosquito Coast and passed on the project.
[citation needed] He died of cancer on February 3, 2003, in his home in Bishop, California, shortly after his final novel, A Servant of Slaves: The Life of Henriette Delille was published.