Geraldine Loretta Saunders (September 3, 1923 – February 26, 2019)[1] known under pen name Jeraldine Saunders was an American writer, TV creator/screenwriter and lecturer,
Jeraldine Saunders | |
---|---|
Born | Geraldine Loretta Glynn September 3, 1923 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Died | February 26, 2019 | (aged 95)
Nationality | American |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1974–2019 |
Spouses | Russell Phillips
(m. 1942; div. 1950)Arthur Andrews
(m. 1972; died 2003) |
Children | Gail Maureen Phillips (b. 1943, d. 1970) |
Saunders was best known as the creator[2] of TV series The Love Boat, an ABC Television series and its associated made-for-TV films portraying the humorous and romantic adventures of various itinerant passengers. Saunders had worked as a model, an astrologer, an numerologist and palm reader.[3]
The program was based on her 1974 book, The Love Boats,[4] her anecdotal account of her time employed as the first full-time female cruise director. From 2003 until her death Saunders was the author of Omarr's Astrological Forecast.[5] The nationally syndicated horoscope column, read by hundreds of thousands worldwide, was originally created by Sydney Omarr, to whom she had been briefly married to, in 1966.[3]
In 1968 Saunders discovered her fiancé, the actor Albert Dekker, dead in his Hollywood home. The death was ruled to be accidental.[6]
But her biggest claim to fame was her book "The Love Boats," which inspired three television movies: "The Love Boat" in 1976 and "The Love Boat II" and "The New Love Boat," both in early 1977. That fall, the concept was turned into an Aaron Spelling series, which ran for 250 episodes, making it one of the most successful shows of the period.