Lewis sold his first short story The Cherokee Kid's Last Stand at the age of 14 for $5.00 that Lewis thought was better money than a field hands wage that was then a dollar a day. Buoyed by his success Lewis submitted an unsolicited Andy Hardy screenplay that was rejected by MGM. He did not sell any more stories until he was 22.

Lewis recalled being lost as a child in a Department Store and being found by two Marines in dress blues. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at 18 years of age in World War II and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in 1945.

After the war Lewis attended the University of Iowa where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism. After obtaining the degree Lewis reentered the Marine Corps through the Marine Corps Reserve. He worked on a Marine training film then was assigned as a technical advisor to the film Sands of Iwo Jima where Lewis said he advised the cast how to lace up their leggings.

Lewis began his screenwriting career in 1950 with several Westerns, including the Lash LaRue feature King of the Bullwhip for Ron Ormond.

With the start of the Korean War Lewis returned to active duty for six years in the Corps. He served as a Combat Correspondent and Photographer where he earned the Bronze Star during his second Korean tour filming Marine aircraft bombing enemy positions. Also during the Korean War Lewis had his first experience with the M1 carbine. He fired eight rounds at an enemy soldier before a Marine with a Thompson submachine gun felled him. Lewis discovered that six of his rounds had hit his target with no effect; Lewis began to carry a Thompson.

Lewis submitted over two dozen magazine articles to Marine Corps Headquarters about the exploits of the Marines in Korea. Headquarters sent them back saying that they sounded too much like Marine propaganda; Lewis sent them to his civilian literary agent who had them published with a fee for Lewis of $200 each. Lewis sent copies of the published articles to the Headquarters person who had rejected them.

After Korea, Captain Lewis served as a Company Commander in the 4th Marines at Camp Pendleton then was transferred to Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay as a Public Information Officer. During his Hawaiian tour, Lewis was assigned as one of the technical advisors to John Ford's Mister Roberts. When no one could find a stunt performer to drive a motorcycle off a pier, Lewis did the job himself and received $700 as opposed to his monthly Captain's pay $660 a month. Lewis had to donate the salary to an approved charity, the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society but John Ford instructed a Hawaiian bartender to send Lewis's bar tab to him to be paid for a year. Lewis also appeared in Ford's film Sergeant Rutledge.

Though Lewis's Commanding Officer offered to get him a Regular Commission, Lewis wished to become a full time writer and left the Corps. In addition to his screenplays, film work, and story writing, Lewis became an editor of a magazine and after three years of observing the process teamed up with that magazine's art director Dean Grennell to publish Gun World magazine in 1959.

Lewis's integrity when writing on the capabilities of various weapons and his publishing photos of "exotic" (military and law enforcement) weapons to attract readers led several major firearms manufacturers to not advertise in Gun World. Lewis also told the then Commandant of the Marine Corps Paul X. Kelley that the M-16 rifle's effect was that "The United States used to be known as a Nation of Riflemen now we've become a Nation of Sprayers".

Lewis's continued contact with the Marine Corps led him to-

• Writing the screenplay to Marshall Thompson's film A Yank in Viet-Nam that was filmed on location in South Vietnam in 1963.

• Having his first novel Tell it to the Marines published in 1966.

• Returning to active duty in the Corps in 1969 with III Marine Amphibious Corps in the Vietnam War. Lewis earned his second and third Air Medals during his Vietnam tour.

Lewis retired from the Corps on his 60th Birthday, saying he missed the life and the people.

In addition to non fiction, Lewis wrote "Charlie Cougar" mysteries and Westerns as well as "White Horse, Black Hat - A Quarter Century on Hollywood's Poverty Row" his memoirs of Hollywood.

Jack Lewis died on May 24, 2009 after a short bout with cancer.

"I've been told that I'm not smart enough to realize I can't tilt windmills and win, but tenacity has a life and a way all its own, I've found. If one approach to a problem doesn't work, figure out how to go around it"