Axelrod got the title for his play "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" from a movie magazine headline, "Will Success Spoil Rock Hudson?" For legal reasons, the surname in the play title was changed to Hunter.
Axelrod started out his career writing radio and TV scripts, "about four hundred of them" by his own estimate in 1955.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 23-25. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.
Father of Jonathan Axelrod and Nina Axelrod.
Former father-in-law of actress Illeana Douglas.
Son of silent film actress Betty Carpenter.