William Lisle Stuart was born on March 13, 1912 in Princeton, Missouri, but grew up in Oklahoma, where his family moved in the early 1920s. In the 1930s he worked as a newspaper reporter in Chicago, then moved to New York City in 1940, where he became a publicist with the advertising firm Young & Rubican. Stuart also turned to writing novels in the 40s, beginning with The Dead Lie Still. He is best known to film aficionados for Night Cry, which was filmed in 1950 as Where the Sidewalk Ends. Stuart went on to become a screenwriter and producer, best remembered for TV scripts for The Green Hornet, 77 Sunset Strip and Martin Kane, for which he wrote 31 episodes. Stuart died on January 11, 1988 in Los Angeles, California.