Jeb Rosebrook, whose long and diverse screenwriting career took moviegoers into deep space with "The Black Hole" and small-town Prescott with "Junior Bonner," has died.

Rosebrook, who had lived in Scottsdale since 1995, died Sept. 3. He was 83.

Despite his lengthy Hollywood career, he had a long relationship with Arizona. Born in New York City on June 11, 1935, he was raised in New York and Connecticut. But after he was diagnosed with asthma at age 9, his parents sent him to the Quarter Circle V Bar Ranch School in Mayer, a prep school now known as the Orme School. He would attend boarding school the rest of his childhood.

He graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, in 1957. He initially moved to New York and then Phoenix, where he worked in advertising for three years. He later left for Los Angeles, where he wrote his first novel during off-hours. The acclaimed "Saturday" was published in 1965.

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In 1967, he decided to pursue his dream of writing for the screen. His screenplay for "Junior Bonner," about an aging rodeo rider returning home to Prescott, became a 1972 vehicle for Steve McQueen.

Rosebrook later worked on several episodes of "The Waltons" with his longtime friend and mentor, Earl Hamner Jr., creator of the hit program.

During this time, Rosebrook also wrote several TV movies, including a 1972 remake of "Miracle on 34th Street" that features Sebastian Cabot; 1975's acclaimed "I Will Fight No More Forever," which earned Rosebrook an Emmy nomination for screenwriting; and 1977's "The Prince of Central Park," an adaptation of the popular Evan Rhodes YA novel.

He returned to the big screen as one of the writers of "The Black Hole," an ambitious 1979 science-fiction epic from Walt Disney Productions. Budgeted at $20 million, it was the most expensive film ever made by the studio at the time.

If he seemed like an unlikely candidate to write an outer-space adventure with gothic overtones, Rosebrook said there was a reason he was hired by Disney execs: They wanted someone who could add a warmth and human element to the futuristic proceedings.

If both "Junior Bonner" and "The Black Hole" were somewhat underappreciated at the time of their release, they gained cult followings through the years.

"It's like there's two separate groups of fans for both those films," he once joked. "They don't overlap in any way, other than they are both extremely passionate."

He returned to work, producing "The Yellow Rose," a nighttime soap opera that featured Sam Elliott, David Soul, Edward Albert and Cybill Shepherd. It ran for one season on NBC starting in 1983. He also wrote several episodes of the program.

Rosebrook also produced and wrote "The Outsiders," a 1990 TV series adaptation of the S.E. Hinton novel about a gang of high-school toughs. He also wrote two entries in the Kenny Rogers series of TV films based on the hit record "The Gambler."

In recent years, Rosebrook returned to writing fiction, as well as journalism, with contributions to Arizona Highways and True West.

Always a colorful storyteller, he wrote and published two novels: 2014's "Purgatory Road" and 2017's "Forever More." Rosebrook was working on a third book in the planned trilogy, "Wake Up Little Susie."

Self-publishing was a new world for Rosebrook, but he enjoyed the experience.

"I'm a legitimate guy," he told The Arizona Republic in 2014. "I've published a real novel. I've written films. It's kind of awkward to hear from people in New York: 'Jeb Rosebrook: Isn't he dead?'"

His final book, written with his son, Stuart, was the memoir "Junior Bonner: The Making of a Classic with Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah in the Summer of 1971." The book was published this year.

Rosebrook is survived by his wife of 58 years, Dorothy Eva Fischer Rosebrook; son, Jeb Stuart Rosebrook; daughter, Katherine Fallon Rosebrook Goode; and four grandchildren.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, at All Saints Episcopal Church, 6300 N. Central Ave, Phoenix.

Messinger Mortuary is handling arrangements. More details at JebRosebrook.com.

Reach the reporter at randy.cordova@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8849. Twitter.com/randy_cordova.

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