William Wallace "Bill" Norton, Jr. (September 24, 1925 – October 1, 2010) was an American screenwriter particularly notable for his collaborations with Burt Reynolds[1] Later in life, he was convicted of gun running in France when he tried to send arms from the United States to the Irish National Liberation Army in Northern Ireland.
He later spent a year living in Cuba but became disillusioned with Communism and was reportedly smuggled from Mexico into the U.S. by his ex-wife.
[5] He started writing, using his life experience of growing up poor and serving in the military, and some of his plays were produced by local theater companies.
[4] His big screen breakthrough came with his script for the 1968 film The Scalphunters, set in the antebellum West, with the movie starring Burt Lancaster, Ossie Davis and Shelley Winters.
[2][3] Other screenplays that Norton wrote included the Angie Dickinson vehicle Big Bad Mama, produced by Roger Corman, and the John Wayne detective film Brannigan (1975).
He wrote the Burt Reynolds vehicles Sam Whiskey, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, White Lightning and Gator.
[6] The van, still inside the container, was then put on a truck and hauled from Rotterdam, through Belgium, to the port of Le Havre, France.
[6] Authorities were watching the van, which had two submachine guns, 12 rifles, 23 revolvers and 2,200 rounds of ammunition in the hidden compartment.