Gordon D. Shirreffs

Gordon Donald Shirreffs (January 15, 1914 – February 9, 1996) was an American author, known mostly for writing Western and juvenile (young adult) novels. He also wrote a teleplay. Two of his novels, Judas Gun and Rio Bravo, were made into movies (Vivo per la tua Morte, 1968 Italy, A Long Ride from Hell, in the U.S.A., Oregon Passage (1957 film), respectively). One of his short stories ("Silent Reckoning") became the movie The Lonesome Trail (1955). Gordon Shirreffs was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1914, soon after his mother emigrated from Scotland. When his National Guard unit was activated in 1940 Shirreffs served in World War II where he was stationed in Alaska's Aleutian Islands as part of the Pacific Theater. Following the war he attended Northwestern University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.Shirreffs married Alice Johanna Gutwein on February 7, 1941 in El Paso, TX. They had two children, a daughter Carole (born 1943) and a son Brian (1946-2015), who died June 22, 2015, Long Beach, CA.

He lived in Granada Hills, San Fernando Valley, CA from 1952 until his death in 1996.

For a time in the 1950s, Shirreffs operated a hobby shop in Granada Hills. In keeping with his Scottish roots, he was a member of one or more bagpipe bands in Burbank and San Fernando, CA.