Orville H. Hampton

Fellow screenwriter C. Jack Lewis recalled in his 2002 book White Horse, Black Hat, that Hampton used the pen name "Owen Harris" in his later career—when he was a regular writer for Columbia Pictures—in an effort to distance himself from his days a "Poverty Row screenwriter." He remembered Hampton as a writer who "wasn't too proud to work at something else, when necessary", pointing to Hampton's credits as dialogue supervisor, additional dialogue writer, and dialogue director in the 1950s.

Hampton died on August 8, 1997, in Malibu, California.

Hampton was born in Rockford, Illinois, and attended the University of Illinois, where he studied chemistry and journalism. After college, he worked as a radio announcer before serving in the Army during World War II. Following the war, Hampton settled in Hollywood, where from 1950 onward he became a prolific screenwriter, scripting or co-writing more than 100 films and television episodes, mainly B-movies and genre films. In 1964, Hampton, along with co-writer Raphael Hayes, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for One Potato, Two Potato.

Orville H. Hampton (May 21, 1917 – August 8, 1997) was an American screenwriter who worked mostly in low-budget films, particularly for producers Robert E. Kent and Edward Small. A screenplay that he and Raphael Hayes wrote for One Potato, Two Potato (1964) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.