The credits roll for Aaron Spelling, king of trash TV

Aaron Spelling, one of television's most successful producers, has died at his Los Angeles mansion after suffering a stroke. He was 83.

Although often criticised for appealing to the lowest common denominator, he had an uncanny knack for knowing what younger audiences wanted and was responsible for some of the most popular television series of all time, including Starsky and Hutch, Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and Dynasty. His opulent prime-time soap operas and dramas rife with action and beautiful women spawned the term "jiggle TV" and helped shape television programming for more than four decades.

With more than 5,000 hours of television and more than 70 series bearing his name, as well as dozens of made-for-TV movies and a smattering of feature films, Spelling was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the most prolific television producer of all time.

Although he remained active until his death - most recently producing the series Charmed - his company, which he took public in 1986, was sold to Viacom, functioning for the past few years as a small division of a vast media conglomerate.

Spelling's roster of hits made him one of Hollywood's richest inhabitants, with a fortune estimated in the mid-1990s at more than £200m. He spent lavishly, building a 56,000sq ft, 123-room mansion, complete with bowling alley and indoor skating rink. One entire floor was devoted to his wife Candy's wardrobe.

Born in Dallas, Aaron Spelling started his career as an actor, landing small roles in westerns such as Gunsmoke. Acknowledg-ing he had little acting talent, he turned to writing. He sold his first script to Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater in 1956, and then created his first television series, Johnny Ringo, in 1959.

In partnership with Leonard Goldberg, he produced a series of hits, including Starsky and Hutch and Charlie's Angels, before launching his own production company in 1977.

Despite his reputation as a purveyor of what he himself called "mind candy", his career also included several more serious projects, including the Emmy-winning TV movies Day One, about the first atom bomb, and And the Band Played On, which dealt with Aids.

Spelling's personal quirks were almost as legendary as his career. A frail man, he refused to fly, travelling instead by train or chauffeur-driven limousine. He held court in his massive office, where a butler would serve lunch. He and Candy had a son, Randy, and daughter, Tori, whom he cast in his series Beverly Hills 90210. Spelling joked about his own legacy in a 1994 interview: "My epitaph will be: 'Tori Spelling's father did 90210 and Melrose Place, lived in a big house.' That's going to be it."