American author (short stories, articles, non-fiction books), television and film scriptwriter, and film producer. He produced, directed, and wrote the film Adios East Los.
Born to a Scots Irish and English father and a Mexican mother, Lansford was raised in an ethnically Mexican neighborhood in East Los Angeles. He had virtually no contact with his father, a Los Angeles policeman, until he was 14.
He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1940 and served with the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade in Iceland, the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion on Guadalcanal, and Bougainville where he was promoted to sergeant and in the 5th Marine Division on Iwo Jima.
During the Korean War he was commissioned as a U.S. Army officer where he became a captain whose duties included being a radio writer with the Armed Forces Radio Service, a Public Information Officer, and a company commander. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his frontline coverage of the battle of Paik Ma San, the first battle in which the ROK army was victorious.
In 1946, Lansford married actress Jean Brooks; the marriage lasted 10 years. They were divorced in 1956 and Lansford remarried to Ruth Ketcham of Long Island, New York.
Lansford died on 22 May 2013 at age 90 from complications of prostate cancer at his Playa del Rey home in Los Angeles.
Link to Wikipedia biography