Morris Heldt, the son of Madeline and Earl C. Heldt Sr. was born and raised in Evansville, Indiana. He graduated from Evansville Bosse High School and then attended
Indiana State University before entering the military where he served in the 96th Combat Support Squadron during the Viet Nam War. After his military service he completed his education at UCLA in Los Angeles, California while also pursuing a career in acting. It was during this period he met his wife, Sue Pam. With his wife's encouragement, in the 1970s, Morris switched his attention to writing and producing.
Morris produced an award winning documentary, as well as theatrical comedy shorts and a weekly CATV syndicated one-hour comedy/variety television show.
In the 1980s, Morris and his wife moved from Los Angeles to Mandalay Shores, California in Ventura County. Mandalay Shores is a beach community located on the ocean about twenty miles north of Malibu, Ca. It wasn't long and Morris met, and became writing partners with another Ventura County resident, writer/actor/director, William Lucking, (one of the stars of the CBS television series, The Outlaws and currently Sons of Anarchy ). In a period of three years, Heldt and Lucking wrote seven original screenplays . . . optioning several of them to production companies. They also wrote spec scripts for CBS television network's Evening Shade and The Outlaws.
In addition, Morris also wrote a weekly personality profile column for a newspaper. He would interview actors, directors, producers and musicians who lived in the Ventura Country area.
In the 1990s Morris became a script doctor, reworking, adding to, and deleting dialogue and scenes from original screenplays. In 1997 he was contracted by Kepi Enterprises to rewrite the screenplay, Quiet Desperation. He also, for Kepi Enterprises, wrote the biography on the actor, Phillip Pine. Morris says about Mr. Pine, "He is one of those actors that everyone says, I know who you are."
In writing about Mr. Pine's life Morris writes extensively about his one-time roommate and co-star in the Broadway stage play, See the Jaguar, actor James Dean.
"Mr. Pine was not only a fine stage actor, headlining on Broadway, but also worked in over a hundred and fifty television shows and movies," Morris stated. And, in Pine's biography, Morris writes about one of Pine's characters, Colonel Green, from one of the original Star Trek episodes. Morris also wrote a short book on Mr. Pine's experience doing the Star Trek series, which includes his relationship with Gene Roddenberry and William Shatner. Mr. Pine personally sold the book at many Star Trek conventions.In late 1997 Morris wrote his first novel, Hollywood Syrup (Published by Mopam Publishing in 1998 and available at all your major Internet bookstores). Morris followed that book with Deadly Ambition published in 1999 and Nikki's Journals 2000.
Morris concentrated on writing op-ed pieces through 2004, which were published in many newspapers nationwide. He commented on everything from today's politics to the enormously successful television show, American Idol. Then, like a powerful lightening strike from the sky Morris' entire life changed.
After spending 24 comfortable years living in their Mandalay Shores beach house Morris and his wife, Sue Pam, decided to move to the desert. The awakening Morris and his wife discovered is frightening, but yet comforting. The story of their move reads like it was made up, but yet every word of it is true. It is another example of how truth can be more outlandish and thought provoking than fiction.
Sue & Morris Heldt at their beach house 2001
After taking almost a five year sabbatical from writing Morris sat down in 2010 and wrote another screenplay. This heartfelt story is tentatively titled, "Phillip's Quest," and is about a senior citizen, mid 70s, feeling empty and useless after losing his longtime life partner, best friend and wife. This man decides to push himself to the limit and enters a cross-country bicycle race. His thinking is that if he can accomplish something so demanding as crossing his country on a bicycle he can certainly have the strength and courage to continue to live. He discovers the entire nation gets caught up in his story of one senior citizen standing up and stating by his actions that he does not want to simply go unnoticed until he quietly dies and drifts away so people do not have to see him, and remind themselves that we all become old. Morris is working with one of America's finest actors, Stacy Keach, and they are in the process of trying to get this story produced.
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