The Writers Guild of America West has named veteran TV writer Dan Wilcox as the recipient of the 2017 Morgan Cox Award in recognition of his service to the guild.
He will be honored at the 2017 Writers Guild Awards ceremony on Feb. 19 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Wilcox is best known as a writer on the CBS series “M*A*S*H” and shared three Emmy nominations for the show.
“Dan Wilcox has been, in a sustained and deeply moving way, a voice for the voiceless,” said WGA President West Howard A. Rodman said.
“His work, at once passionate and effective, has been on behalf of those who might otherwise lack the power to make themselves fully heard,” Rodman added. “For more than a decade he’s devoted countless hours to the widest array of essential Guild committees: it’s often seemed that the way to get Dan to do something is to assure him that the task will be thankless. This award is a way for all of us to acknowledge his extraordinary devotion to his fellow writers and their Guild.”
Wilcox served on the board of directors in 2003-04 and in 2005-13. He’s also sat on the following committees: Board Nominating (2014), Board Organizing (2005-07), Committee Advisory Panel (2005-present; Co-Chair 2012-13), Credits Review Committee Review (2003-05), Daytime Committee (2006-12), Foreign Employment Task Force (2009-present), International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG Delegate, 2006), Jobs (2010-12), and Member Representation (2010-11).
He was a strike captain during the 2007-08 writers’ strike, as well as co-chair of the guild’s Strike Rules Compliance Committee. Wilcox currently serves as the chair of the Career Longevity Committee (2009-present; Co-Chair 2013-15) and continues to serve on the Writer Access Project Advisory Committee (2008-present).
His TV writing credits include “Alice,” “Good Times,” “Angie,” and “America 2-Night,” for which he shared a 1978 Emmy nom for outstanding writing in a comedy-variety or music series. Wilcox won a 1970 Emmy Award for writing on “Sesame Street.”
Previous recipients of the Morgan Cox Award include Del Reisman, Frank Pierson, Carl Gottlieb, Patric M. Verrone, Daniel Petrie Jr., Thomas Cook, Jeff Melvoin, and Arthur Sellers.
