Ron Koslow was an American screenwriter and television producer who created the CBS fantasy drama Beauty and the Beast (1987 to 1990), the series that reimagined the old fairy tale as a romance between a New York assistant district attorney and a noble, lion faced man who lived in a secret world beneath the city. He died on October 7, 2026, at his home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, at the age of 81. His death was announced by family spokesperson Audrey Altman and reported by The Hollywood Reporter on October 19, 2026, after a family obituary appeared on Legacy the day before.
Koslow was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 9, 1945, one of three boys born to Sammye and Dave Koslow. He was raised in St. Louis and in Los Angeles, where he attended University High School. He went on to the University of California, Berkeley, and the UCLA film school, and then earned a law degree from Loyola Law School and became a member of the California Bar. He never left storytelling behind, and by the mid 1970s he was writing for the screen.
His first produced feature was Lifeguard (1976), a Paramount drama directed by Daniel Petrie in which Sam Elliott plays a career Southern California lifeguard forced to reconsider his life when he attends his 15 year high school reunion. Koslow received sole screenplay credit. He followed it with the NBC television film Lady of the House (1978), a biographical drama about the San Francisco madam turned mayor Sally Stanford, starring Dyan Cannon. For Michael Apted he wrote Firstborn (1984), a family drama starring Teri Garr and Peter Weller, with early roles for Sarah Jessica Parker and Robert Downey Jr. That film was produced by Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas, beginning a working relationship that would shape his television career. He then wrote and co produced John Landis's Into the Night (1985), a nocturnal Los Angeles thriller starring Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Beauty and the Beast came about when CBS, under entertainment president Kim LeMasters, wanted to see whether the classic tale could work for a modern audience. Koslow's answer drew on Jean Cocteau's 1946 film La Belle et la Bete and on an article he had read years earlier about people living in the steam tunnels below the Waldorf Astoria. He set the story in contemporary Manhattan and invented Vincent, a man born deformed and raised by a scholarly recluse called Father in a hidden community of outcasts below the streets. Linda Hamilton played Catherine Chandler, a lawyer who is attacked, left for dead in Central Park and nursed back to health by Vincent. Ron Perlman, under makeup designed by Rick Baker, played Vincent. Koslow wrote the pilot, "Once Upon a Time in the City of New York," which premiered on September 25, 1987, and he brought in Witt/Thomas Productions as executive producers.
The show became a phenomenon among viewers who wrote to the production office by the hundreds each week. Its writing staff included George R. R. Martin, years before A Song of Ice and Fire, and the future 24 and Homeland creators Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa. Martin later said that Koslow's ambitions for the series were very high and that he regarded it as adult drama rather than formula action, which persuaded him to join. Koslow earned three Emmy nominations: outstanding writing in a drama series for the pilot in 1988, and outstanding drama series in 1988 and 1989. The series ran three seasons until August 4, 1990, and its fan community, who called themselves Helpers, kept holding conventions for decades. Koslow himself appeared at fan gatherings such as Tunnel Con II in 1992.
He kept returning to romance, memory and the fantastic. He created the ABC drama My Life and Times (1991), told by an elderly man looking back from the year 2035, with Helen Hunt in the cast. He co wrote and executive produced the ABC pilot film Running Delilah (1994) with Kim Cattrall and Billy Zane, and wrote the Sharon Stone death row drama Last Dance (1996) for director Bruce Beresford. With Shaun Cassidy he co created the Fox fantasy series Roar (1997), which starred a young Heath Ledger. He was an executive producer of the WB superhero series Birds of Prey (2002 to 2003). With Trevor Munson he co created Moonlight (2007 to 2008), a CBS vampire romance starring Alex O'Loughlin that ran 16 episodes and gathered its own devoted following. When CBS revived Beauty and the Beast for The CW in 2012, Koslow served as an executive producer of the new version, which ran four seasons.
His family's obituary names no spouse or children. It described a man who was happiest at home or in what he called "the most magical place in the world," New York City, and who treasured lifelong friendships, including his Zeta Beta Tau fraternity brothers. He was predeceased by his parents and by his brothers Bobby and Ken. He is survived by his sister Judy, brother-in-law Stefan and nieces Jenna and Lily.
His family said he "was known for his imagination and his ability to tell stories rooted in the deepest parts of the human experience," and that his work "explored the transformative power of love, the complexities of human connection and the extraordinary possibilities of worlds beyond our own." The cause of his death has not been made public.
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