John Russell Langley was an American television and film director, writer, and producer who was best known as the creator and executive producer of the television show Cops, which premiered on Fox in March 1989.
21 Facts About John Langley
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John Langley was born in Oklahoma City, but moved to Los Angeles as a small child.
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John Langley was the son of Lurleen, a homemaker, and John Russell Langley, an oil wildcatter.
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John Langley was a Morse code intercept operator in the Army Security Agency, an intelligence unit of the United States Army from 1961 to 1963, in Panama.
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John Langley received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 1971, and later a Master's degree in literature and composition.
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John Langley briefly participated in the doctorate of philosophy program in University of California, Irvine.
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On December 2,1986, John Langley made his entrance into the world of reality television when a show which he produced, American Vice: The Doping of a Nation, showed three live drug arrests on primetime television for the first time.
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John Langley first produced Who Murdered JFK in collaboration with Saban Productions in 1988.
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John Langley recalled that the Cops concept was initially difficult to sell to television network executives, and that all were "very negative" to his fundamental idea.
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John Langley was finally able to win a meeting with Barry Diller, then head of Fox to explain his concept.
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John Langley's credits include various network, cable and syndicated TV shows, including the television series Code 3, Anatomy of Crime, Video Justice, and Cop Files.
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John Langley produced various independent films and directed film and documentary film, including the Dolph Lundgren workout video Maximum Potential, Dogwatch, Tiptoes and Wildside.
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John Langley produced a television series called Inside American Jail for TruTV with his son Morgan.
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Morgan John Langley is credited as co-creator of the new series, which incorporates the video verite style of Cops.
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John Langley was a producer of Antoine Fuqua's Brooklyn's Finest, which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009.
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John Langley started his own off-road race team known as COPS racing team.
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John Langley was active in Southern Nevada Off Road Enthusiasts and SCORE International.
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John Langley won the 2017 Baja 1000 in the Spec Trophy Truck class.
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On June 26,2021, John Langley died of a heart attack while competing in the coast-to-coast Ensenada to San Felipe 250 off-road race in Baja California, Mexico.
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John Langley won various awards for the Cops television series, including the American Television Award and four Emmy Award nominations.
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John Langley was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 2011 for his contributions to television.