Lawrence G. DiTillio was an American film and TV series writer. He also wrote an award winning adventure campaign for Chaosium's horror role-playing gameCall of Cthulhu.
Education
Larry DiTillio attended the film school at New York University for four years. He then spent an additional two years at UCLA's film school.
Career
After graduating, DiTillio decided to make a career as a Hollywood writer. He knocked on agency doors until he was able to find an agent willing and able to find him work as a film writer. DiTillio wrote for both television and movies in the 1970s, including a stint on Filmation's Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. He then became a staff writer for the original He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series and over its two seasons, wrote 17 episodes, more than anyone else. He also directed one episode. During a writers' strike, DiTillio searched for other ways to generate income through writing. For Flying Buffalo, he wrote The Isle of Darksmoke, their last multiplayer Tunnels & Trolls adventure. He also collaborated with Lynn Willis to create Masks of Nyarlathotep, a world-spanning campaign for Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu. It won an Origins Award, and is considered one of the best roleplaying adventures of all time, For a few months, DiTillio was also a contributor to Chaosium's Different Worlds magazine, writing about news from the world of film and television in his "The Sword of Hollywood" column. DiTillio also authored the book Demon Magic: The Second Stormbringer Companion for Chaosium's Stormbringerfantasy role-playing game, and contributed to Chaosium's Cthulhu suppplement Terror Australis. Despite his success in the role-playing games industry, once the screenwriters' strike ended, DiTillio went back to screenwriting. In 1985, he wrote the feature-length filmHe-Man and She-Ra: Secret of the Sword. Following its release, he and J. Michael Straczynski became writers for Filmation's spin-off show . DiTillio created the show bible for the spinoff show and invented most of the character names. Straczynski later recalled the considerable time DiTillio spent writing character background for the show. "One of the things Larry and I decided, very early on, was that She-Ra couldn't just be 'He-Man with boobs.' The show had to go deeper than that, especially given that we were creating this for a female lead character." However, when Filmation refused to give them credit on-screen, both left, finding work with DIC Entertainment on Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. In 1993, DiTillio worked with Straczynski again, this time on the science-fiction series Babylon 5, with Straczynski as producer and DiTillio the executivestory editor. DiTillio also worked on the animated seriesBeast Wars, writing or co-writing most of the episodes. In 2002, he was a writer for the updated He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series. DiTillio died at the age of 71 on March 16, 2019 of Parkinson's Disease.
