Biography
American screenwriter J. Benton Cheney served with the 31st Infantry in Siberia and the Philippines from 1919, remaining in the latter location as a sports writer with the Manila Bulletin. Relocating to China, Cheney became city editor of the Shanghai Times and, he later claimed, functioned as spokesman for Chiang Kai-Shek. An editor for Reuters, he returned to the United States and took up screenwriting with
The Game That Kills (1937). Associated with B-Western producer Harry Sherman from 1940, Cheney wrote some of the best Hopalong Cassidy Westerns including
Border Vigilantes and
Riders of the Timberline (both 1941). He switched allegiance to Republic Pictures in 1943, adding
Roy Rogers to his clients, but returned frequently to the Hoppy series and later also wrote for the likes of
Charles Starrett and Rogers imitator
Jimmy Wakely. Cheney ended his screen career writing for the
Gene Autry Show in the early '50s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide