1983 TV movie, Love is Forever, was based on the true story of one of the most daring escapes in modern history. John Everingham (played in the film by Michael Landon) rescued his Laotian fiancée under the watchful guns of the Pathet Lao Army, executing an unforgettable, exciting, dangerous, and life-risking plan. The plan demanded a year's careful training and study, after Everingham, a top reporter, was imprisoned in Laos, then expelled from the country with a high price for his murder if he ever returned. Bartlett filmed Love Is Forever in Thailand. He is the first person to get permission to shoot on the Mekong River, two miles away from the Army of Laos. Landon and Bartlett clashed often during the production over a variety of issues with Bartlett eventually editing the film in secret to avoid Landon's interference. Personal life and death Bartlett was heavily involved in the Los Angeles community as a founder of the Music Center, a director of the James Doolittle Theatre, a patron of the Art Museum, a patron of the American Youth Symphony, a board member of KCET, and organizer of the Los Angeles Rams Club and the Los Angeles Lakers Basketball Club. At the time of his passing in 1993, Bartlett was finishing his second novel for Random House, Face to Face. His first novel, The Rest of Our Lives, was a best seller in 1988. Bartlett had partnered with Michael J. Lasky and developed a dozen projects for the eleven years prior to his death. One of these projects included the film Catch Me If You Can. Bartlett and Lasky both wrote and drafted many scripts for the project with Hall positioned as the director and Lasky producing. The rights were eventually sold and produced/directed by Steven Spielberg, nineteen years after Lasky's first option. In his last days, they were working on a three-picture slate which included the re-mastering of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The production team grew to include Robert Watts, known for being one of the producers on a number of Spielberg and Lucas films. Awards Bartlett's films have received ten Best Picture and Best Director awards at various international film festivals, seventeen Academy Award nominations, eight Hollywood Foreign Press Golden Globe Awards, and more than 75 national and international awards from publications and organizations. References Who's Who in America, 47th edition, Marquis, 1992. Deaths last week. Chicago Tribune, September