PASSINGS / Ric Hardman

Ric Hardman, 84, a writer of screenplays, TV scripts and novels, mostly in the western genre, died in his sleep June 29 at his home in Los Angeles, his son Chris said. He had cancer.

For the big screen, Hardman wrote “Gunman’s Walk,” a 1958 western starring Van Heflin and Tab Hunter, and “The Rare Breed,” another western from 1966 featuring James Stewart.

In the early 1960s, Hardman wrote for the western TV series “Lawman” using his name as well as a pen name, Bronson Howitzer.

He later turned to writing novels, including “Fifteen Flags,” a 1968 story about American troops fighting in Siberia during the Russian Civil War of 1919-20, and “Sunshine Rider,” a 1998 novel that Hardman called the first vegetarian western and a Boston Globe reviewer called “delicious whimsy.”

Richards Hardman was born Nov. 8, 1924, in Seattle. He served in the Marines during World War II and studied at the University of Washington and UCLA’s film school before starting his writing career.