American television and film producer who guided the Star Trek film series from The Wrath of Khan through The Final Frontier.
Harve Bennett (1930–2015) was an American producer and screenwriter who had made his name in television with The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. Paramount brought him in after Star Trek: The Motion Picture to make a successful sequel for a smaller budget.
To prepare, Bennett watched every episode of the original series and settled on Space Seed as the basis for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), on which he was executive producer and co-wrote the story. He then produced Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), which he wrote; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), whose story he developed with Leonard Nimoy and whose screenplay he co-wrote; and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), sharing story credit with William Shatner and David Loughery.
Bennett also appeared on screen in a small role as a Starfleet admiral. He left the franchise after a proposed Starfleet Academy prequel film did not go ahead, and he died in 2015.