Stephen J. Cannell, 69, writer behind many hit TV series

Stephen J. Cannell, 69, the prolific writer-producer of dozens of series that included TV favorites

The Rockford Files

,

The A-Team

, and

The Commish

, has died.

Mr. Cannell died of complications from melanoma Thursday at his home in Pasadena, Calif., his family said in a statement Friday.

During three decades as an independent producer, he distinguished himself as a rangy, outgoing chap with a trim beard who was generally identified with action dramas full of squealing tires and tough guys trading punches.

But his range was greater than he was given credit for. Tenspeed and Brown Shoe was a clever detective drama starring Ben Vereen and then-unknown Jeff Goldblum in 1980. Profit, the shocking saga of a psycho businessman who lived in a cardboard box, was unforgettable to the few viewers who saw it: Fox pulled the plug after just four episodes in 1996.

With Wiseguy (1987-90), Mr. Cannell chilled viewers with a film-noir descent into the underworld that predated The Sopranos by more than a decade and stands as one of the most provocative major-network crime shows ever. In one of his first roles, Kevin Spacey spent half a season playing opposite Joan Severance in a particularly perverse brother-and-sister crime team.

The Rockford Files became an Emmy-winning TV classic about the misadventures of its hapless ex-con private eye, played by James Garner.

"People say, 'How can the guy who did Wiseguy do The A-Team?' I don't know," Mr. Cannell told the Associated Press in 1993. "But I do know it's easier to think of me simply as the guy who wrote The A-Team. So they do."

During his TV heyday, Mr. Cannell became familiar to viewers from the ID that followed each of his shows: He was seen in his office typing on his Selectric before blithely ripping a sheet of paper from the carriage, whereupon it morphed into the C-shaped logo of Cannell Entertainment Inc.

That was all the idea of his wife, Marcia, he said, and it "appealed to my sense of hooey. . . . I'm a ham."

He was also an occasional actor, most recently in a recurring role on the ABC series Castle.

A third-generation Californian, Mr. Cannell (rhymes with "channel") got into television writing scripts for It Takes a Thief, Ironside, and Adam-12. It was a remarkable career choice for someone who had suffered since childhood from severe dyslexia. (He became an advocate for children and adults with learning disabilities.)

Mr. Cannell in recent years had focused his attention on writing books. His 16th novel, The Prostitute's Ball, will be released this month.

"I never thought of myself as being a brilliant writer, and still don't," he said in the AP interview. "I'm a populist. With Rockford, we were never trying to be important. And as thoroughly hated as it was by critics, I loved The A-Team. I thought it was really cool."

He was also a producer of the feature film updating The A-Team, released this year.

In addition to his wife of 46 years, Mr. Cannell is survived by three children and three grandchildren.