John Masius, Emmy-winning TV writer of St. Elsewhere, dies at 75

John Masius, the Emmy winning television writer and producer best known for his work on St. Elsewhere and for creating Touched by an Angel and Providence, died Sept. 13 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 75. His former wife, actress Ellen Bry, announced that Masius had been battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, and had experienced a nine month decline from the disease.

Masius began his television career after a chance meeting with producer Bruce Paltrow while working as a waiter on Venice Beach. He joined Paltrow's The White Shadow as a production assistant and advanced to writer and coordinating producer. He moved with frequent collaborator Mark Tinker to develop and produce St. Elsewhere, the NBC medical drama set in a fictional Boston hospital. Masius wrote and produced across the show's entire six season run from 1982 to 1987, earning two Primetime Emmy Awards for writing in 1984 and 1986 and garnering some 14 nominations for his work on the series.

He went on to create several network dramas that broadened his profile. Touched by an Angel, a spiritual series starring Roma Downey and Della Reese that offered stories of intervention and redemption, ran on CBS from...