A three-time college dropout, Jim Cash received a bachelor's in English from Michigan State University (MSU) in 1970, followed by an master's in Television and Radio in 1972. As a professor of writing and film history, in 1975 Cash met a student while working at MSU, Jack Epps, Jr., who would later become his writing partner. They began their writing relationship while outlining their first stories together on a napkin in the MSU Union Grill. Soon afterwards Epps moved to Hollywood, while Cash stayed grounded in their native Midwest but still collaborated across country and co-wrote many 1980's and 1990's international box office blockbusters including Top Gun (1986)_, The Secret of My Success (1987)_ and Turner and Hooch (1989)_ and Anaconda (1997)_. Cutting short his twenty-five year partnership with Epps, Cash died in 2000 of an intestinal ailment and was survived by his wife and four children.