Chris Thompson

Writer, producer
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Chris Thompson

Writer, producer

Detroit, Michigan

June 26, 2015

Variety

Chris Thompson was a writer and producer best known for his work on the series The Naked Truth and Bosom Buddies, the latter of which helped to launch the career of Tom Hanks.

Thompson began his career in the mid-1970s. While working as a comedy writer and performer, he was introduced to Garry Marshall, who gave him a job on the short-lived teen sitcom Blansky’s Beauties. Thompson followed this up with another Marshall production, the ABC hit Laverne & Shirley, which he worked on as a writer and producer from ’77 to ’79.

By 1980 he was able to create his own series, Bosom Buddies, starring Hanks and Peter Scolari as roommates who pose as women in order to stay in an affordable (but all-female) apartment building in New York City. The series lasted for two seasons. Thompson also worked on the series The Larry Sanders Show, House Rules, Dave's World, Ladies Man, Action, I'm with Her and, most recently, the Disney channel’s Shake It Up!, starring Zendaya and Bella Thorne.

He also worked on the television movies 13 Thirteenth Avenue, The President of Love, Slickers, Lola and Big Deals. Additionally, his film credits include the 1986 movie Jumping Jack Flash, starring Whoopi Goldberg, and Back to the Beach, starring Frankie Avalon.

Thompson died June 26, 2015, in Toluca Lake, California. He was 63.

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