THOUSAND OAKS, CA - Ib Melchior of Los Angeles will discuss his exciting careers as a counterintelligence agent, writer and director as part of the 2011-2012 Scandinavian Lecture Series at California Lutheran University.

“Ib Melchior: Writer, Producer, OSS Agent” will be presented at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, in the Roth Nelson Room. This is the first event in a two-part series featuring personal experiences during World War II. On Tuesday, Nov. 15, Irene Levin Berman will speak of her family’s escape from Norway during the Holocaust.

Melchior, a Denmark native, toured with a British theatrical company, first as an actor and later as stage manager and co-director. In the United States with the troupe when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, he volunteered his services to the U.S. Armed Forces, operating with the "cloak-and-dagger" Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the U.S. Military Intelligence Service. He also served in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) as a military intelligence investigator attached to the Counter Intelligence Corps. At the lecture, he will have a gun that was used to try to kill him. Adolf Hitler had presented the weapon to the person who used it against Melchior. The U.S. Army and the King of Denmark decorated Melchior for his work in the ETO.

The dangers Melchior encountered inspired him to develop espionage stories that evolved into novels and films. His books include “Order of Battle: Hitler’s Werewolves,” “Quest: Searching for Germany’s Nazi Past” and “Case by Case: A U.S. Army Counterintelligence Agent in World War II,” an autobiography that will be re-released in a new edition next year.

Melchior directed some 500 New York-based television shows ranging from the musical "Perry Como Show" to the dramatic documentary series "The March of Medicine." Beginning in the late 1950s, he wrote a number of low-budget science-fiction films including “The Angry Red Planet," "Journey to the Seventh Planet" and "The Time Travelers." His 2009 book, “Six Cult Films From the Sixties,” provides the inside scoop on the production of some of his films.

In 1976, Melchior received a Golden Scroll for Best Writing for his body of work from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. He is still writing at 94.

The Roth Nelson Room is located on Mountclef Boulevard near Memorial Parkway on the Thousand Oaks campus.

The CLU History Department and the Scandinavian American Cultural & Historical Foundation are sponsoring the free presentation. For more information, call Anita Londgren at 805-241-1051 or the Scandinavian Center at 805-241-0391.