Ib Melchior
Ib Jørgen Melchior (September 17, 1917 – March 14, 2015) was a Danish-American novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and film director of low-budget American science fiction movies, most of them released by American International Pictures.
Ib Melchior
Lumal at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Born
- 1917. · Copenhagen.
- Died
- 2015. · West Hollywood.
- Nationality
- United States and Kingdom of Denmark.
- Occupation
- film director, novelist, screenwriter and writer.
- Education
- University of Copenhagen.
- Honours
- Bronze Star Medal and Saturn Awards.
- Languages
- English and Danish.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Ib Jørgen Melchior (September 17, 1917 – March 14, 2015) was a Danish-American novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and film director of low-budget American science fiction movies, most of them released by American International Pictures.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Ib Melchior. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Awarded · outgoing
Bronze Star Medal
Term
This image was released by the United States Air Force with the ID AFG-070807-012 (next) . This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still require
Citizen Of · outgoing
United States
Place
Educated At · outgoing
University of Copenhagen
Organisation
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
original value insufficient · checked 25 September 2026
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q3081707 · wikipedia · Ib Melchior
In this article
Personal life
Personal life
Melchior was born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of Lauritz Melchior, an opera singer. He served in the Counterintelligence Corps (U.S. Army) during World War II, getting his training at Camp Ritchie in Maryland which classifies him as one of the Ritchie Boys. He also participated in the liberation of Flossenbürg concentration camp as well as the discovery of stolen currency, gold and art at Merkers-Kieselbach Cavern, and the capture of a Werwolf unit in 1945, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star. He was also involved in a long legal battle involving his father's estate, Chossewitz in Brandenburg, Germany, which was confiscated by the communist government of East Germany and never returned. In 1965, a decorated war hero, he was dubbed Knight Commander of the Militant Order of Saint Bridget of Sweden. In 1976, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films awarded Ib Melchior its Golden Scroll Award of Merit for Outstanding Achievement. Biographies include Ib Melchior: Man of Imagination by Robert Skotak, as well as Melchior's own autobiography Case by Case: A U.S. Army Counterintelligence Agent in World War II. Melchior died of natural causes on March 14, 2015, at the age of 97, five months after the death of his wife of over 50 years, architect Cleo Baldon.
Fiction and non-fiction
Fiction and non-fiction
Melchior's novels include Code Name: Grand Guignol, Eva, The Haigerloch Project, The Marcus Device, Order of Battle: Hitler's Werewolves, Sleeper Agent, The Tombstone Cipher and The Watchdogs of Abaddon. His non-fiction includes the books Quest: Searching for Germany's Nazi Past (with co-author Frank Brandenburg) and Lauritz Melchior: The Golden Years of Bayreuth, the latter a biography of his father, the opera singer and movie star Lauritz Melchior. In 1993 Melchior published an account of his career as a staff sergeant with the US Counterintelligence Corps (U.S. Army) during World War II, Case by Case: A U.S. Army Counterintelligence Agent in World War II. With his wife, Cleo Baldon, Melchior wrote the non-fiction books Reflections on the Pool: California Designs for Swimming and Steps & Stairways, both influenced by Baldon's work as an architect. Melchior also wrote Hour of Vengeance, a play based on the Viking story of Amled that also inspired William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In 1982, it was awarded the Hamlet Award for best playwriting by the Shakespeare Society of America.
Interviews
Interviews
• Lawrence Fultz Jr., "The Man from Angry Red Planet: Ib Melchior", Monster Bash Magazine, 2007, No. 6 • Brett Homenick, "THE IMAGINATION OF IB MELCHIOR! A Conversation with the Danish Monster Moviemaker!" Vantage Point Interviews, July 2012. https: vantagepointinterviews.com/2017/05/18/the-imagination-of-ib-melchior-a-conversation-with-the-danish-monster-movie-maker/
Articles
Articles
• David C. Hayes, "Return to the Angry Red Planet", Planet X Magazine, October 2000, Vol. 1, No. 4
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
2015
Ib Melchior died at West Hollywood.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Copenhagen.
Birth place
West Hollywood.
Death place
Films and television
As a filmmaker, Melchior wrote and directed The Angry Red Planet (1959) and The Time Travelers (1964). His most high-profile credit was as co-screenwriter (along with John C. Higgins) of Byron Haskin's critically acclaimed Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964). He cowrote the screenplays for two U.S.–Danish coproductions, Reptilicus (1961) and Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962), and provided the English language script for Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires (1965). For television, he wrote the episode "The Premonition" for the second season of the original The Outer Limits series. The episode was broadcast in 1965. Melchior's 1956 short story "The Racer" was adapted as Paul Bartel's cult film favorite, Death Race 2000 (1975), starring David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone and produced by Roger Corman. It was later remade as Death Race (2008), starring Jason Statham and Joan Allen, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and produced by Tom Cruise. He wrote the screenplay for the Pacific War action film Ambush Bay (1966) as well as writing and directing an anti-marijuana short subject Keep Off the Grass (1970). He claimed to have originated the ideas for both Lost in Space and Star Trek, which were subsequently appropriated, without credit or compensation, by Irwin Allen and Gene Roddenberry, respectively. In 1962, three years before Lost in Space first aired, Melchior's comic, Space Family Robinson, debuted for Gold Key Comics, running for 59 issues until 1982. Both creations were loosely based on Johann David Wyss's 1812 novel The Swiss Family Robinson. The similarities between Allen's and Melchior's works moved Gold Key to mull legal action against the former. Gold Key was also publishing Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, however, and therefore decided against filing suit. Instead, an agreement was reached whereby Melchior's comic could change its cover title to Space Family Robinson: Lost in Space. The new title appeared starting with issue #15, published in January 1966. Prelude Pictures subsequently hired Melchior as a consultant on its 1998 Lost in Space feature film adaptation, but later sold his contract to New Line Cinema, its production partner on the film. New Line agreed to pay Melchior a $75,000 production bonus and $15,000, but refused him his contractually promised two percent of the producer's gross receipts from the film.
References ==== External links
References ==== External links
* * * • Ib Melchior on The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction • A documentary film on the life of famed Hollywood director IB Melchior • Trailers from Melchior's best-known films, with his own commentary
Ib Melchior
Lumal at English Wikipedia · This image has been extracted from another file
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.MP DETECTIVES IN OCCUPIED-GERMANY 1946, FASCIST-PARTY ARCHIVES IN 1946 GERMANY, GERMAN FASCISTS IN OCCUPIED GERMANY 1946, - Magazine Article - Old Magazine Articles.
- 2.George Dyer, XII Corps: Spearhead of Patton's Third Army, Ch. 16 – AUSTRIA AND VE-DAY. 22 APRIL 45 – 9 MAY 45
- 3.Melchior Versus Germany . Legal document related to Chossewitz.
- 4.Barnes, Mike. Ib Melchior Dead: 'Robinson Crusoe on Mars' Screenwriter Was 97. The Hollywood Reporter. March 17, 2015.
- 5.Cleo Melchoir Obituary. Los Angeles Times. November 11, 2014.
- 6.Melchior, Ib. Case by Case: A U.S. Army Counterintelligence Agent in World War II. Presidio Press, 1993.
- 7.Colker, David. Ib Melchior dies at 97; sci-fi filmmaker reset classic tales in space. Los Angeles Times. March 21, 2015.
- 8.Macek III, J.C. The Lost in Space Family Robinson Part II. PopMatters. June 26, 2013.
- 9.Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1965-1969. TwoMorrows Publishing. 137. 2014. 978-1605490557.
- 10.Ib Melchior v. New Line Productions, Inc. (2003) [ Cal.App.4th ]. findlaw.com.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q3081707: Ib MelchiorWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
36,804 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Ian TraceyPerson
- Ian VeneracionPerson
- Ian WhytePerson
- Iara LeePerson
- Ib SchønbergPerson
- İbrahim BüyükakPerson
- Ibrahim CeesayPerson
- Ibrahim El BatoutPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Ib Melchior?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.