LOS ANGELES — Sol Saks, a veteran television writer and playwright who created the classic 1960s sitcom “Bewitched,” has died. He was 100.

Saks, a longtime resident of the San Fernando Valley, died Saturday of respiratory failure as a result of pneumonia at Sherman Oaks Hospital, said his wife, Sandra.

Although Saks wrote the pilot script for the sitcom “Bewitched,” he never penned another episode of the popular series about a witch married to a mortal. It ran on ABC from 1964 to 1972 and starred Elizabeth Montgomery and, originally, Dick York.

“That was it: He just sat back and took in the royalties,” said Paul Wayne, longtime friend and a writer who freelanced on “Bewitched” for two seasons.

In writing the pilot, he was inspired by the movies “Bell, Book and Candle” (1958) and “I Married a Witch” (1942), Saks later recalled.

“He was pretty honest about the fact it wasn’t a particularly original idea,” said Wayne. “He came in with both of those thoughts and wrote the pilot and sat back and just became a millionaire on ‘Bewitched.’ It was absolutely marvelous. He was very open about just being hit by a lucky stick, so to speak.”

In a radio career that began in Chicago in the late 1930s and continued after he moved to Los Angeles in 1943, Saks wrote for shows including “Duffy’s Tavern,” “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” “The Baby Snooks Show” and “The Beulah Show.”

He moved into television in 1953 with “My Favorite Husband,” a CBS situation comedy based on the radio series. He also developed the situation comedy “Mr. Adams and Eve” and wrote for series including “I Married Joan,” “Alcoa Theatre” and “Ford Startime.”

Saks, who had a stint in the 1960s as a CBS executive in charge of comedy series, also wrote the screenplay for “Walk, Don’t Run,” a 1966 comedy starring Cary Grant in his final film role.