Charles G. Lang Jr., 89; Actor Later Wrote for Film, Television

Charles G. Lang Jr., 89, an actor-turned-writer who wrote several of director Budd Boetticher’s films, including “The Magnificent Matador,” died Nov. 20 in Bucks County, Pa.

Born in Brooklyn in 1915, Lang played semi-professional baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers’ farm team before being spotted by a Hollywood talent scout in a Manhattan restaurant in 1937. He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and made his Broadway debut in “Pastoral” in 1939 before being signed to a 40-week contract with Paramount Studios.

Lang launched his film career in the 1940 drama “One Crowded Night.” He also appeared in “Keep ‘Em Flying” with Abbott and Costello and “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break” with W.C. Fields and Mae West. He also co-starred with Fay Wray in “Wildcat Bus.”

Turning to screenplays in the 1950s, Lang wrote “The Magnificent Matador,” a 1955 bullfighting film starring Maureen O’Hara and Anthony Quinn, as well as Boetticher’s “Buchanan Rides Alone” and “Decision at Sundown,” both starring Randolph Scott.

Lang wrote the first produced episode of the classic Warner Bros. TV western “Cheyenne,” although it aired second after the show’s premiere in the fall of 1955. His TV writing credits also include episodes of “Perry Mason,” “Bonanza” and “The High Chaparral.”