David E. Kelley Biography

Fast Facts

• Father, Jack, was a Hall of Fame hockey coach at Boston University from 1962 to '72, winning NCAA championships in 1971 and '72
• He later coached and held front-office positions in the NHL
• An avid hockey player himself, David captained his team at Princeton and played professionally for a year in Switzerland after graduation
• Worked as a lawyer at the Boston firm Fine & Ambrogne (1983-86)
• Broke into television when Steven Bochco read his screenplay for 1987's From the Hip and hired him for the staff of L
• A
• Law
• Woman in rocking chair who says "You stinka" in closing credits of David E
• Kelley Productions is Kelley's late grandmother
• In 2003, fired most of the original cast of The Practice in order to reduce costs
• James Spader signed on as the series' new lead and in 2004 earned his own spin-off, Boston Legal
• Although initially very critical of the reality-TV craze, Kelley created his own short-lived reality show, The Law Firm, in 2005