Our deepest sympathies to the family of Ivan Goff.

As a producers and writers, Goff and his long time partner, Ben Roberts, were responsible for many great TV series and feature films. Goff and Roberts gave Mannix that hip edge we fell in love with. It's a trademark of the show and one of the reasons Mannix still holds up as well today as when it first aired. All one has to do is flip through today's television offerings to know that he will be missed.
Thanks for the memories Ivan.

Ivan Goff, Writer and Producer, Is Dead at 89
By WILLIAM H. HONAN

Ivan Goff, co-creator of the television series ''Charlie's Angels'' and co-writer of the films ''White Heat,'' ''Captain Horatio Hornblower'' and ''Man of a Thousand Faces,'' died on Thursday at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 89 and lived in Malibu. With his writing partner for 39 years, Ben Roberts, Mr. Goff turned out scripts for 25 feature films starring such actors as James Cagney, Gregory Peck, Clark Gable, Doris Day, Joan Crawford and Mario Lanza. Among their credits were ''Midnight Lace,'' ''Shake Hands With the Devil,'' ''Band of Angels,'' ''Green Fire,'' ''King of the Khyber Rifles,'' ''Come Fill the Cup'' and ''Goodbye, My Fancy.'' Mr. Goff and Mr. Roberts began their successful partnership with a highly publicized disaster:. Their 1947 play ''Portrait in Black,'' about two former Army sergeants dreaming up a red-hot murder mystery while killing time in their barracks during World War II. The play, which revolved around the murder of a shipping magnate, opened at the Booth Theater with great fanfare and a cast led by Clare Luce. But Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times spoke for most critics when he dismissed the play as ''exasperating,'' ''sophomoric'' and ''claptrap.'' When a film version of ''Portrait in Black'' starring Lana Turner was released in 1960, it, too, displeased the critics.'' Undeterred, Mr. Goff and Mr. Roberts turned to screenwriting and won an Oscar nomination for their screenplay for ''Man of a Thousand Faces,'' which starred Cagney as the silent movie star Lon Chaney. In the 1960's, the pair turned to television, writing a series called ''The Rogues'' for Dick Powell, David Niven and Charles Boyer. ''The Rogues'' dealt with the exploits of a charming gang of international swindlers more concerned with stylish manners than big scores. They also produced ''Mannix'' (1967-75) and created ''Charlie's Angels'' (1976-81). Mr. Goff served as president of the screen writers council of the Screen Writers Guild, predecessor of the Writers Guild of America. Mr. Goff was born in Perth, Australia, the son of two concert musicians. Starting at 15, he began writing shipping news for a local newspaper, but became dissatisfied by the remoteness of his home. ''Living in Australia made me crazy,'' he said in an interview. ''It took a month for a book to get to Australia, a year for a play and forever for an idea.'' When he was 20, he and a friend sailed for the United States and wound up in Hollywood. In the early 1930's, he sold articles to London newspapers, and in 1936 became Hollywood correspondent for The London Daily Mirror. His service in the Signal Corps introduced him to Mr. Roberts and a career in television and movies. Mr. Goff's marriage to the former Natalie Draper ended in divorce in 1964. He is survived by three sons, Kevin, of Los Angeles; Trevor, of Malibu, and Brian, of Santa Monica, and a brother, Peter, of Pacific Palisades, Calif. Even by Hollywood standards, the partnership with Mr. Roberts was unusually close. ''I haven't bought a book since I started collaborating with Roberts,'' Mr. Goff once said. ''I just steal his. We call him the Bard of Ivan