20 Facts About John Kneubuhl

John Alexander Kneubuhl was an American Samoan screenwriter, playwright and Polynesian historian.

John Kneubuhl wrote for American television series such as The Fugitive, Gunsmoke, The Wild Wild West, Star Trek, The Invaders and Hawaii Five-O.

An accomplished playwright, John Kneubuhl "was a bicultural Polynesian who used the medium of theater to explore identity, loneliness and the craft required to bring them to the stage".

John Alexander Kneubuhl was born in Fagatogo, Pago Pago or the village of Leone, in American Samoa.

John Kneubuhl is the uncle of Samoan Hawaiian writer Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl and Lemanatele Mark Kneubuhl who lives in American Samoa.

John Kneubuhl's mother, Atalina Pritchard from Apia, was educated in New Zealand, and was a talented pianist, singer and painter.

John Kneubuhl's father Benjamin F Kneubuhl was a navy surveyor from Iowa who settled in Samoa, and later became a successful businessman.

At the age of 13, John Kneubuhl was sent off to enter Punahou School, Hawaii.

John Kneubuhl married "Dotsy" in 1942, and soon after entered the US Navy Japanese Language School at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

When George H Kerr was tasked to organize the second research unit of intelligence officers in 1944, aimed to gather information for compiling the Civil Affairs Handbook for Taiwan, Kneubuhl was one of the officers recruited into this unit.

John Kneubuhl was part of the theater's 1948 version of Harry Brown's A Sound of Hunting adapted to include the heroic role played by the 442nd Infantry Regiment of enlisted nisei, received with great fervor by the Japanese-American community.

John Kneubuhl was both screenwriter and director of the film Damien, a biography of Father Damien that was based on his own play.

John Kneubuhl then moved on to Los Angeles to write for television.

In 1965, inspired by a magazine article on Michael Dunn, John Kneubuhl created the arch-villain Dr Miguelito Loveless for the series The Wild Wild West.

John Kneubuhl died in Pago Pago, American Samoa, on February 20,1992, the day before the first Samoan reading of his play "Think of a Garden" by his drama and writing group.

In 2022, John Kneubuhl was featured in Naomi Hirahara's anthology We Are Here: 30 Inspiring Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Have Shaped the United States that was published by the Smithsonian Institution and Running Press Kids.

In 1946, John Kneubuhl wrote the play The Harp in the Willows based on the life of Lorenzo Lyons and This City Is Haunted.

John Kneubuhl wrote Mele Kanikau: A Pageant and the comedy A Play: A Play.

John Kneubuhl's play is a devastating critique of the New Zealand administration's mismanagement of Samoa during these events.

John Kneubuhl had died a year earlier, the day before the play's first reading in Pago Pago by his writing and drama group.