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Hamner died in his sleep at 12:20 p.m. Thursday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, surrounded by his family as his favorite album John Denver’s, “The Rocky Mountain Collection,” played, his family wrote in a message posted on Hamner’s Facebook page.
Hamner was diagnosed with cancer in 2014.
Hamner’s upbringing in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains town of Schuyler inspired his novel, “Spencer’s Mountain,” which was adapted as a movie in 1963.
A six-mile hike his family took on Christmas Eve in 1933 inspired Hamner’s 1970 novel “The Homecoming,” which became a made-for-television movie airing on CBS in 1971 and was the basis for “The Waltons.”
Hamner earlier was a writer for the classic CBS science-fiction anthology series “The Twilight Zone,” writing such episodes as “The Bewitchin’ Pool,” “You Drive” and “Black Leather Jackets.”
Hamner also created the 1981-90 CBS prime-time soap opera “Falcon Crest.”
Hamner wrote the script for NBC’s 1968 adaptation of the children’s story “Heidi,” best remembered for the network’s decision to drop the telecast of an New York Jets-Oakland Raiders game so the film could start on time.
Hamner also created the short-lived CBS series “Apple’s Way” and “Morningstar/Eveningstar” and wrote for such series as “Nanny and the Professor” and “Gentle Ben.”
—Staff and wire reports