Notable TV Directors
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- Director
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Paul Wendkos was born on 20 September 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970), Battle of the Coral Sea (1959) and The Burglar (1957). He was married to Ruth Burnat and Lin Bolen. He died on 12 November 2009 in Malibu, Los Angeles County, California, USA.- Director
- Editor
- Editorial Department
Virgil W. Vogel began his career at Universal in 1940 as an assistant editor. He worked as an editor for many years, although by the mid-'50s he had begun to tire of the job and pressed Universal executive Edward Muhl for a shot at directing. Vogel was handed The Mole People (1956) with John Agar, and his capable handling of that film led to other assignments at the studio. Vogel later directed many made-for-television movies as well as episodes of TV's Bonanza (1959), Wagon Train (1957), M Squad (1957), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974), Mission: Impossible (1966), Quantum Leap (1989), Spenser: For Hire (1985) and many others.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Paul Henreid was born Paul Georg Julius Freiherr von Hernreid Ritter von Wasel-Waldingau in Trieste, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the son of Marie Luise Heilig (Lendecke) and Baron Karl Alphons Hernreid. His father was an aristocratic banker, who was born to a Jewish family whose surname was changed from Hirsch to Hernreid.
Paul grew up in Vienna and studied at the prestigious Maria Theresa Academy (graduating in 1927) and the Institute of Graphic Arts. For four years, he worked as translator and book designer for a publishing outfit run by Otto Preminger, while training to be an actor at night. Preminger was also a protégé (and managing director) of Max Reinhardt. After attending one of Henreid's acting school performances, Preminger introduced him to the famous stage director and this led to a contract. In 1933, Paul made his debut at the Reinhardt Theatre in "Faust". He subsequently had several leading roles on the stage and appeared in a couple of Austrian films. Paul, like his character Victor Laszlo in Casablanca (1942), was avidly anti-fascist. He accordingly left continental Europe and went to London in 1935, first appearing on stage as Prince Albert in "Victoria the Great" two years later.
Henreid made his English-speaking motion picture debut in the popular drama Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), as the sympathetic German master Max Staefel, who proves to be Chipping's truest friend and ally. After that, however, he became incongruously typecast as Nazi henchmen in Mad Men of Europe (1940) and Night Train to Munich (1940). That year, he moved to the United States (becoming a citizen the following year) and quickly established himself on Broadway with "Flight to the West", as a Ribbentrop-type Nazi consul. His powerful performance led to radio work in the serial "Joyce Jordan-Girl Interne" and a film contract with RKO in 1941.
This marked a turning point in Paul Henreid's career. He finally escaped the stereotypical Teutonic image and began to play heroic or romantic leads, his first being Joan of Paris (1942), opposite Michèle Morgan, as French RAF pilot Paul Lavallier. Significantly, his next film, Now, Voyager (1942), defined his new screen persona: debonnaire, cultured and genteel, lighting two cigarettes simultaneously, then passing one to Bette Davis. According to Henreid, this legendary (and later often lampooned) scene was almost cut from the film because the director, Irving Rapper, had concerns about it. Next came "Casablanca", where Henreid played the idealistic, sensitive patriot Victor Laszlo; the poorly received Bronte sisters biopic Devotion (1946), as an Irish priest; and a stalwart performance as a Polish count and Ida Lupino's love interest, In Our Time (1944).
After several dull romantic leads, Henreid reinvented himself yet again. He played a memorably athletic and lively Dutch pirate, the 'Barracuda', in RKO's colourful swashbuckler The Spanish Main (1945). Another of his best later performances was as a sadistic South African commandant in the underrated film noir Rope of Sand (1949), which re-united him with his former "Casablanca" co-stars Peter Lorre and Claude Rains. After the Arabian Technicolor adventure, Thief of Damascus (1952), Henreid's star began to fade. His last noteworthy appearance during the fifties was as an itinerant magician in the oriental extravaganza Siren of Bagdad (1953) . The most memorable of several in-jokes, had Henreid lighting two hookahs (water pipes) for one of his harem girls, spoofing his famous scene from "Now, Voyager".
Outspoken in his opposition to McCarthyism and adhering to his rights under the First Amendment, he was subsequently blacklisted as a "communist sympathizer" by the House Committee on Un- American Activities. In spite of the damage this did to his career, he re-emerged as a director of second features and television episodes for Screen Gems, Desilu and other companies. In 1957, Alfred Hitchcock (in defiance of the blacklist) hired him to direct several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955). Towards the end of his career, Paul Henreid directed his former "Now, Voyager" co-star Bette Davis in the camp melodrama Dead Ringer (1963) and toured with Agnes Moorehead on stage in a short-lived revival of "Don Juan in Hell"(1972- 73). Henreid died of pneumonia in a Santa Monica hospital in April 1992, after having suffered a stroke. He has the distinction of having not just one but two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for his films, and one for his television work.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Back in the days when ships burned coal, John Moxey's family had a coal/steel business with depots all over the world; he was born in 1925 in Argentina, where his father was running one of the firm's stations. Moxey knew from childhood that he was cut out for a job in the picture business and, following his discharge from the service after World War II, the battle-fatigued veteran got his start in the editing room. His first directing job was for British TV, followed by low-budget features in England, UK and scores of TV assignments in the U.S. He began using his middle name (Llewellyn) at the suggestion of a numerologist.- Director
- Producer
- Additional Crew
John Rich was born on 6 July 1925 in Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for All in the Family (1971), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) and The Twilight Zone (1959). He was married to Patricia Dodds, Andrea L. Rich and Sylvia Lewis. He died on 29 January 2012 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
George Schaefer was born on 16 December 1920 in Wallingford, Connecticut, USA. He was a director and producer, known for CBS Playhouse (1967), Macbeth (1960) and Beverly Hills Cop III (1994). He was married to Mildred Trares. He died on 10 September 1997 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Boris Sagal was born on 18 October 1923 in Yekaterinoslav, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for The Omega Man (1971), The Name of the Game (1968) and Rich Man, Poor Man (1976). He was married to Marge Champion and Sara Macon. He died on 22 May 1981 in Portland, Oregon, USA.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Directed more than 1,600 episodes of television. Graduated from Hollywood High School in 1935 and got a job as a messenger at Columbia Studios, working his way up to second assistant director by 1939. Served in the U.S. Navy's photographic unit near the end of World War II.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Born in Lucknow, India, Waris Hussein moved to England at age nine with his parents. He later attended Cambridge and at 21 started as a trainee director with BBC, where his mother, the late Attia Hussein, worked. In addition to reading news in Hindi, she was also the station's dramatic star--translating William Shakespeare in Urdu and Hindi--as well as an author. Young Hussein, too, was influenced by his mother's artistic abilities and knew very early on that he wanted to be a director. After starting in television with work on Doctor Who (1963) (including directing the very first episode, An Unearthly Child (1963)), Hussein moved on to film, directing such legends as Lord Laurence Olivier, Bette Davis and Joan Plowright.
While considering himself a British filmmaker, Hussein has worked both sides of the Atlantic, as well as in the country of his birth, India.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Walter Grauman was born on 17 March 1922 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Old Man Who Cried Wolf (1970), Blue Light (1966) and The Twilight Zone (1959). He was married to Margaret (Peggy) Buckley Parker, Joan Taylor and Suzanne Carla Greenstone. He died on 20 March 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Producer
- Director
- Cinematographer
Celebrated American documentarian who gradually amassed a considerable reputation and a devoted audience with a series of reassuringly traditional meditations on Americana. Burns' works are treasure troves of archival materials; he skillfully utilizes period music and footage, photographs, periodicals and ordinary people's correspondence, the latter often movingly read by seasoned professional actors in a deliberate attempt to get away from a "Great Man" approach to history. Like most non-fiction filmmakers, Burns wears many hats on his projects, often serving as writer, cinematographer, editor and music director in addition to producing and directing. He achieved his apotheosis with The Civil War (1990), a phenomenally popular 11-hour documentary that won two Emmys and broke all previous ratings records for public TV. The series' companion coffee table book--priced at a hefty $50--sold more than 700,000 copies. The audio version, narrated by Burns, was also a major best-seller. In the final accounting, "The Civil War" became the first documentary to gross over $100 million. Not surprisingly, it has become perennial fund-raising programming for public TV stations around the country. Burns arrived upon the scene with the Oscar-nominated Brooklyn Bridge (1981), a nostalgic chronicle of the construction of the fabled edifice. The film was more widely seen when rebroadcast on PBS the following year. Though Burns has made other nonfiction films for theatrical release, notably an acclaimed and ambiguous portrait of Depression-era Louisiana governor Huey Long (1985), PBS would prove to be his true home. He cast a probing eye on such American subjects as The Statue of Liberty (1985), The Congress (1989) (PBS), painter Thomas Hart Benton (1989) (PBS) and early radio with Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991) (PBS). Burns returned to long-form documentary with his most ambitious project to date, an 18-hour history of Baseball (1994), which aired on PBS in the fall of 1994. He approached the national pastime as a template for understanding changes in modern American society. Ironically, this was the only baseball on the air at the time, as the players and owners were embroiled in a bitter strike.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Alexander Singer was born on 18 April 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for The Killing (1956), Killer's Kiss (1955) and The Bold Ones: The Lawyers (1969). He was married to Judy Singer. He died on 18 December 2020.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Daniel Petrie was born on 26 November 1920 in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was a director and producer, known for The Bay Boy (1984), A Raisin in the Sun (1961) and The Assistant (1997). He was married to Dorothea G. Petrie. He died on 22 August 2004 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Emmy Award-winner Fielder Cook was a top television director who got his start in the early days of television, when he went to work for Lux Video Theatre (1950) in 1950. Other live-TV omnibus series that he worked on included Studio One (1948) and The Kaiser Aluminum Hour (1956), for which he also did teleplays (and served as a producer on the latter series). He remained true to television, whereas other highly respected helmers from the live days of TV abandoned the medium for feature films. Commenting on the fact that he directed the last episode of both "The Ponds Theater (1953) and Playhouse 90 (1956), Cook said, "I was beginning to feel like the mortician of television." In all, Cook received nine Emmy Award nominations, seven as best director and two for best producer, winning three (two for directing, one for producing).
Born James Fielder Cook in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 9, 1923, he was raised in Tampa, Florida. He joined the Navy and served as an officer during World War II after graduating cum laude with an undergraduate degree in literature from Washington and Lee University. After the war he went to England to study Elizabethan drama at the University of Birmingham. When he returned to the US, he eschewed the theater for television, going to work in live TV. His first work as a TV director was with "The Lux Video Theatre."
In 1955 he established his critical reputation directing Patterns (1955) written by Rod Serling, one of the most successful productions of the live-TV era. After the broadcast CBS-TV owner William Paley called the control room for the first time ever and said, "Tell everyone, especially Rod Serling, that tonight we put television about ten years ahead." Serling won an Emmy for "Patterns," and the following year the teleplay was made into a movie (Patterns (1956)) from a script by Serling and directed by Cook. While Cook would occasionally direct feature films, television remained his main bailiwick.
After "Patterns" he could have the made the transition into feature film work like other directors who made their bones on live TV, such as Oscar-winners Franklin J. Schaffner and Sidney Lumet. However, he preferred directing for TV. "I went back to TV because I could do what I wanted to do", he told the "Los Angeles Times" in a 1966 interview. "You learn from your mistakes with nobody telling you what to do." He believed that the story was paramount. In the days of live TV, writers like Serling and Paddy Chayefsky accrued respect and wielded the kind of power denied movie screenwriters. They were more like playwrights in the theater, where the word was king. In a 1997 interview with UPI, Cook said, "As a director I tell a story, but it's not my story." As a director, he was committed to realizing the writer's visions, so the writer could say, "There it is. That's my work."
In addition to directing teleplays and TV movies, Cook also directed episodic television. His first two Emmy nominations came in 1961 for producing and directing Big Deal in Laredo (1962). Four years later he won his first two Emmy Awards for producing and directing the adaptation of the musical Brigadoon (1966). He won a second Emmy in 1971 for directing The Price (1971). That same year he had directed The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971), which spawned the TV series The Waltons (1972), which brought him another Emmy nod in 1972. In 1976 and 1977 he was nominated again for directing the pilot of the dramatic TV series Beacon Hill (1975) and the TV special Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys (1976), respectively.
Cook continued to direct regularly on TV and the occasional feature film until 1989. Most of his work was in the TV movie genre, including the adaptation of Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979), the Emmy Award-winning Gauguin the Savage (1980) and the Frances Farmer biopic Will There Really Be a Morning? (1983). He took an eight-year hiatus from directing following _"American Playwrights Theater: The One-Acts" (1989) {Third and Oak: The Pool Hall (#1.1)}, and his swan song as a director was The Member of the Wedding (1997).
Fielder Cook died on June 20, 2003, in Charlotte, North Carolina.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Joseph Pevney was born on 15 September 1911 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Star Trek (1966), Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) and Man of a Thousand Faces (1957). He was married to Margo Yvette Collins, Philippa Hilber and Mitzi Green. He died on 18 May 2008 in Palm Desert, California, USA.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Joseph Sargent was born on 22 July 1925 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Jaws: The Revenge (1987), The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) and Nightmares (1983). He was married to Carolyn Nelson and Mary Carver. He died on 22 December 2014 in Malibu, California, USA.- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Writer
Robert Day worked his way up from clapper boy to camera operator to full-fledged lensman in his native England before giving directing a shot in the mid-1950s. His first film as director, the black-comic The Green Man (1956) for the writer-producer team of 'Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, garnered fine reviews and a classic notoriety; using this as a starting point, Day went on to become one of the industry's busiest directors. He relocated to Hollywood in the 1960s and began directing scads of TV episodes and made-for-TV movies on this side of the Atlantic. He occasionally turns up in bits in his own productions, including The Haunted Strangler (1958), Two Way Stretch (1960), the mini-series Peter and Paul (1981), etc.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Don Medford was born on 26 November 1917 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Twilight Zone (1959), Baretta (1975) and To Trap a Spy (1964). He was married to Patti Crowe and Lynn Parker. He died on 12 December 2012 in West Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Ted Post first began thinking about a career in show business in 1938, when he was working as a weekend usher at the Loew's Pitkin Theater in Brooklyn, New York, and getting so caught up in the movies that he would sometimes forget to escort the patrons to their seats. He received some acting training at the workshop of Tamara Daykarhanova, but later set aside the dream of becoming a performer and segued into directing summer theater. In the mid- to late 1940s, Post made a name for himself in the theater and then moved into the adventurous arena of early television.
He has since directed numerous segments of TV's top series (Gunsmoke (1955), Perry Mason (1957), The Twilight Zone (1959), "Columbo," many more) and feature films ranging from Clint Eastwood's Hang 'Em High (1968) and Magnum Force (1973) to Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). Returning to his theater roots, Post recently directed the 2001-02 Festival of the Arts at Bel-Air's University of Judaism.- Director
- Producer
Under-rated producer and director of the 1960s and 1970s.
In the 1960s he directed episodes of several cult TV shows including one episode of The Twilight Zone.
In the 1970s he got caught up in the disaster movie craze by putting out atleast five disaster films, four for TV and one feature (The Concorde...Airport '79).
Horror At 37,000 Feet (1973) combined a flight disaster with supernatural events and wonderful over-acting from William Shatner.
The Runaway Train (1973) may have looked too studio-bound but solid acting from stars such as Vera Miles and Martin Milner held viewers for the whole film.
Adventures Of The Queen (1975), in this film set on The Queen Mary, Rich directed it while Irwin Allen - "The Master Of Disaster" - produced it. The direction of the whole cast seemed very strong and powerful, mainly of Bradford Dillman as the villain.
SST: Death Flight (1977) saw Rich return to an airplane disaster film and the quality acting from Horror At 37,000 Feet is here as well. Also, Martin Milner from The Runaway Train was in this.
The Concorde...Airport '79 (1979) was Rich's first disaster film for theaters and it failed at the box office. In fact, it not only failed but was actually laughed off the screen by many as it was viewed as being just so bad. It ended the Airport movie series.
However, all the above films, including The Concorde...Airport '79, are fun to watch and, unlike some other films of the disaster genre, were never boring. Rich really had a talent for directing actors and getting the most out of them.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
After service in World War II, New Jersey born Buzz Kulik joined an advertising agency as a producer-director of TV commercials. After a few years he left the agency and became a television director during the period known as "The Golden Age of Television"; Kulik directed many episodes of such highly respected anthology series as Playhouse 90 (1956) and You Are There (1953), in addition to such series as The Defenders (1961) and The Twilight Zone (1959). Kulik began directing features in the early 1960s but returned to television to become one of the most respected directors in the genre known as the made-for-TV movie, one of his most notable efforts being the highly acclaimed Brian's Song (1971). During the 1971-72 presidential campaign Kulik was the television advisor to Democratic candidate Sen. Edmund Muskie.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Hy Averback was born on 21 October 1920 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. He was a director and producer, known for M*A*S*H (1972), The Tom Ewell Show (1960) and The Real McCoys (1957). He was married to Dorothy Wayne Bridges. He died on 14 October 1997 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Entering films as a screenwriter in 1950, Bernard Girard made his directorial debut in 1957. His film career has been sporadic, as he concentrated mostly on television. He did make a splash with a stylish comedy/thriller, Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966), but the majority of his film output has been routine.- Director
- Producer
- Art Director
Marvin J. Chomsky was born on 23 May 1929 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Holocaust (1978), Billionaire Boys Club (1987) and Peter the Great (1986). He died on 28 March 2022 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
William A. Graham was born on 15 May 1926 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991), CBS Playhouse (1967) and Play of the Week (1959). He was married to Betty Graham and Janet Graham. He died on 12 September 2013 in Malibu, California, USA.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Douglas Heyes was born on 22 May 1919 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers (1956), Maverick (1957) and The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954). He was married to Joanna Heyes. He died on 8 February 1993 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Born in Freeport, Pennsylvania, Don Taylor studied law, then speech and drama at Penn State University, where as a freshman he began taking part in college stage productions. Hitchhiking to Hollywood in 1942, the youthful Taylor screen-tested at Warner Brothers but was rejected because of his draft status. MGM, not as fussy, signed him to a contract and immediately put him to work, assigning him the minuscule role of a soldier in director Clarence Brown's sentimental slice of Americana, The Human Comedy (1943). More minor roles followed before Taylor enlisted in the Army; but even there he continued to act: Playwright/screenwriter Moss Hart chose him to play one of the leads in the United States Army Air Forces' production of Hart's play, "Winged Victory." Taylor met his first wife, actress Phyllis Avery, when she was also in Winged Victory. Returning to civilian life, Taylor resumed his work in pictures with a top role in the trend-setting crime drama The Naked City (1948). In later years Taylor became a film and TV director, being nominated for an Emmy for his direction of an episode of The Farmer's Daughter. Taylor met his second wife Hazel Court when he directed her in a 1958 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Peter Tewksbury was born on 21 March 1923 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Father Knows Best (1954), It's a Man's World (1962) and My Three Sons (1960). He was married to Ann Schuyler and Kathleen Jean Willoughby. He died on 20 February 2003 in Brattleboro, Vermont, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Paul Bogart was born on 13 November 1919 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for CBS Playhouse (1967), All in the Family (1971) and The Golden Girls (1985). He was married to Alma Jane Gitnick. He died on 15 April 2012 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
David Greene had a varied early career, beginning with his first job as junior reporter for the Walthamstow Guardian. Life as a journalist was not to be his forte, however. During the years spanning the mid- to late 1930's, he tried his luck variously in the furniture removal business, as a deck hand and as a hospital porter, before signing on with the Merchant Navy at the onset of World War II. He lasted a year before being invalided out in 1941. Becoming affiliated with the Everyman Theatre in London as its publicity manager, he finally found his vocation in the acting profession and subsequently enrolled at RADA. From 1948, he performed in repertory which included a season or two at the Old Vic. Movies followed, with supporting roles in films like The Wooden Horse (1950).
While travelling through Canada with the touring Broadway Company of 'Anthony and Cleopatra' in 1952, Greene decided to accept an offer from the Canadian Broadcasting Company to join their television department. He emigrated officially in 1953, and moved to New York three years later. By the end of the decade, he had become one of the most sought-after TV directors in the business. Working on both sides of the Atlantic, he helmed episodes of popular action and adventure series like Sir Francis Drake (1961) and The Defenders (1961). He also directed the occasional feature. Three of these stand out.
His first, The Shuttered Room (1967), was a macabre story, loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft. Greene's eye for off-beat location, combined with his clever use of subjective camera technique, gave the film a striking visual sense and considerably heightened its suspense value. Sebastian (1968), with its stark Orwellian visions of London, was a stylish espionage thriller about code breaking that did not take itself all that seriously. It boasted an excellent cast, headed by Dirk Bogarde, Susannah York and Lilli Palmer, and was directed with style, fairly obscuring the numerous incongruities within the plot. Third of the trio, The Strange Affair (1968), was a gritty, somewhat unpleasant, tale of police corruption and obsession set in swinging 60's London. More overtly violent than its predecessors in the genre, it imported Greene's American experience into British film and is worth viewing chiefly for the director's taut handling.
Once again back in the U.S. from the mid-1970's, Greene directed several instalments of the popular miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) and then specialised in made-for-TV films, also occasionally working as producer or executive producer. Arguably, his most successful spell in the medium was between 1976 and 1979, winning three of his four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing of a Drama Series or Special. The oft-married Greene retired in 1999 and died in April 2003, aged 82.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Lamont Johnson was born on 30 September 1922 in Stockton, California, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Wallenberg: A Hero's Story (1985), Lipstick (1976) and Lincoln (1988). He was married to Tony Johnson. He died on 24 October 2010 in Monterey, California, USA.- Director
- Animation Department
- Writer
John Korty was born on 22 June 1936 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Who Are the DeBolts? and Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? (1977), The Music School (1974) and Farewell to Manzanar (1976). He was married to Jane Silvia, Beulah Chang Korty and Carol E Tweedie. He died on 9 March 2022 in Point Reyes Station, California, USA.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Richard C. Sarafian was born on 28 April 1930 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Vanishing Point (1971), Bugsy (1991) and Blue Streak (1999). He was married to Helen Joan Altman. He died on 18 September 2013 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Production Manager
Lee H. Katzin started directing features in the late 1960s. Turning to made-for-television movies, he became one of the busiest directors in that genre, churning out a slew of mostly routine fodder. Every so often, however, one would rise above the rest: Along Came a Spider (1970) is a tense, gritty murder mystery, and The Quest (1976) is a lively, beautifully shot, well paced and hugely enjoyable western, enlivened by rollicking performances from Brian Keith, Cameron Mitchell and Keenan Wynn.- Director
- Editor
- Producer
Christian Nyby, the television and movie director who achieved acclaim as a film editor before moving into the director's chair, was born on September 1, 1913, in Los Angeles, California. He made his reputation as a cutter during the 1940s, when he worked with the great helmer Howard Hawks, winning his sole Academy Award nomination for the editing of Hawks' classic Western Red River (1948) (1948). Nyby first collaborated with Hawks as an editor at Warner Bros., on the director's adaptation of his friend Ernest Hemingway's novel To Have and Have Not (1944) (1944). He edited The Big Sleep (1946), both the original 1944 version and the recut version that put more emphasis on stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall that was released in 1946.
In a real-life scenario similar to Robert Wise's cutting of Orson Welles's second masterpiece, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Nyby had to cut Red River (1948) on his own when director/producer Hawks had to go to Europe to complete another assignment. Nyby had to shorten Hawks' original cut, and also eliminate scenes that producer Howard Hughes thought plagiarized his own Western The Outlaw (1943), which Hawks had worked on. Though the film became regarded as a genre classic in the original Nyby cut, the original cut that Nyby had made under Hawks' supervision survived and was released during the 1960s, further burnishing the reputation of the film.
Nyby moved to the directors' chair for producer Hawks for the sci-fi movie The Thing from Another World (1951). Although The Thing is rightly regarded as a classic, credit for the direction of the film generally is attributed to Hawks as he reportedly was on the set everyday as the producer, and the film bears his "auteurist" stamp. Furthermore, Nyby's subsequent directorial output in film and on TV was mediocre, unlike this, his debut. Some believe the Hawks was ashamed to put his name on such a lowly genre piece (sci-fi was despised, critically, until Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) a generation later, and that film, one of the great classics of cinema, initially engendered hostile reviews from critics). Another theory is that Hawks helmed the film himself but let Nyby, who was on the set learning the ropes of direction, take the director's credit on the picture to receive membership in the Directors Guild. Whatever the truth, "The Thing" -- Nyby's greatest accomplishment as a director -- generally is credited to Hawks in fact or in spirit, so much is his style evident in the picture.
Nyby went on to direct B-movies such as the uninspired ode to the Marine Corps and battlefield sacrifice First to Fight (1967) (1967) and episodic television, never again showing the promise he had as director of "The Thing." He died on September 17, 1993, two weeks after turning 80 years old.- Director
- Production Manager
- Producer
Born in England on Christmas Day, 1905, Lewis Allen first came on the show-biz scene when he was appointed executive in charge of West End and Broadway stage productions for famed impresario Gilbert Miller. Allen also co-directed some of the productions (including the celebrated "Victoria Regina" with Helen Hayes and Vincent Price) before he was lured to Hollywood by Paramount studio head Buddy G. DeSylva. The Uninvited (1944), based on Dorothy Macardle's best-selling novel, made for an auspicious directing debut; its success prompted an immediate follow-up, the suspense thriller The Unseen (1945) (with a script by Raymond Chandler). Otherwise, his filmography leans heavily toward "tough guy" movies of the Alan Ladd-George Raft-Edward G. Robinson school. Allen also directed much TV (Perry Mason (1957), The Big Valley (1965), Mission: Impossible (1966), Little House on the Prairie (1974), many more).- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Alan Rafkin was born on 23 July 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for It's Garry Shandling's Show. (1986), One Day at a Time (1975) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970). He was married to Ann Rosin. He died on 6 August 2001 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Additional Crew
- Director
- Producer
Reza Badiyi was born on 17 April 1929 in Arak, Iran. He was a director and producer, known for Carnival of Souls (1962), Stop Susan Williams (1979) and Get Smart (1965). He was married to Tania Harley, Barbara Turner and Gwendolyn M Dennis. He died on 20 August 2011 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Educated at Northwestern University, Frederick De Cordova began his show business career on the stage, and came to Hollywood in the mid-'40s as a dialogue director. He graduated to director in 1945. He spent much of his career at Universal Pictures, where he turned out medium-budget westerns, comedies and musicals. In the mid-'50s he turned his main focus to television, directing and producing The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950), The Jack Benny Program (1950) and December Bride (1954). Although he directed an occasional feature, he was much more successful on TV, and in 1971 became executive producer of the long-running late-night talk show The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962).- Director
- Producer
- Additional Crew
John Erman was born on 3 August 1935 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Blackwater Lightship (2004), Roots (1977) and The Outer Limits (1963). He died on 25 June 2021 in New York City, New York, USA.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Tall, dignified-looking Newland began in show business as a song-and-dance man with a vaudeville troupe ('The Vikings'), whose trade-mark was wearing gold capes. He acted in stock with the Stuart Walker Company, then found work on the New York stage in tandem with Milton Berle at the Roxy, Capitol and Loew's State Theatres. He also acted in radio and resumed touring nationally on the vaudeville circuit, as well as performing on the legitimate stage in such respected plays as "The Petrified Forest". After wartime service in the Army Air Corps, Newland embarked on a short film career under contract to Warner Brothers, which -- by his own account -- was an 'immediate failure'.
He instead turned his hand to directing early television and became best known for his paranormal anthology series One Step Beyond (1959), which he also hosted in his distinctively mellifluous voice and deadpan fashion. This was a good (though rather less well-known) contemporary of The Twilight Zone (1959). It was shot on the MGM lot with full access to the studio's wardrobe department and with a respectable budget of $30,000 to $50,000 per episode. In addition to high production values, the series consistently boasted good actors, including a young Warren Beatty, William Shatner and Suzanne Pleshette. An attempt to resurrect the franchise (The Next Step Beyond (1978)) nearly twenty years later with the same production team failed to re-ignite public interest.
Though he considered his work on 'One Step Beyond' as the highlight of his career, Newland continued to be in demand for many more years as a busy television director in a variety of other genres: from soap opera (Peyton Place (1964)), to espionage (The Man Who Never Was (1966)); from westerns (Daniel Boone (1964)) to cop shows (Police Woman (1974)). Until the mid-70's, his sonorous voice also continued to resound on radio's CBS Mystery Theater.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Georgetown University-educated Thomas Stephen Gries was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ruth Marie (Gluck), an advertising copywriter and actress, and Joseph Charles Gries. He returned from service with the US Marines in WW II and worked as a reporter for a Chicago newspaper. Traveling to Hollywood in 1947, he took a job as a talent agent, and eventually went to work for producer/director Stanley Kramer as a publicist and story aide. He entered the production end of the business as an associate producer, then graduated to writing and producing documentaries. He switched to television, where he received an Emmy in 1963 for directing the series East Side/West Side (1963). He alternated between features and made-for-TV movies, turning out some real gems (Will Penny (1967), Helter Skelter (1976)) and some real duds (Number One (1969)). His later output in both genres was routine. He died of a heart attack while playing tennis.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
William Asher was born on 8 August 1921 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Bewitched (1964), Fireball 500 (1966) and Short Short Dramas (1952). He was married to Meredith Coffin, Joyce Bulifant, Elizabeth Montgomery and Danni Sue Nolan. He died on 16 July 2012 in Palm Desert, California, USA.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Casting Director
Hollingsworth Morse was born on 16 December 1910 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (1954), The Fall Guy (1981) and The Dukes of Hazzard (1979). He was married to Sally Eilers and Sandra Gould. He died on 23 January 1988 in Studio City, California, USA.- Director
- Script and Continuity Department
- Additional Crew
Milwaukee-born Don Weis began as a director of light-hearted, often youth-oriented entertainment. After graduating in film studies from the University of Southern California in 1942, he got his first job as an errand boy at Warner Brothers. He saw wartime service as a technician with the 1st Motion Picture Unit of the U.S. Army Air Corps, involved in the production of training films at Culver City. After the war he resumed his apprenticeship with Enterprise Productions as a dialogue director and assistant on several pictures produced by Stanley Kramer. In 1951 he was signed by Dore Schary to a two-year contract at MGM, making his directorial feature debut with the newspaper expose Bannerline (1951). This was followed by a string of light comedies and musicals of widely varying quality.
Among the best of the bunch was the cheerful George Wells-scripted and -produced musical I Love Melvin (1953) starring Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor, highlighted by several exuberant dance routines and an engaging dream sequence in which Debbie sings "A Lady Loves". There was also a youthful college comedy, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), and an enjoyable minor sword-and-sandal outing made for Fox, entitled The Adventures of Hajji Baba (1954). Of considerably less interest were two inane entries in the "beach party" genre aimed specifically at the teen market: the sleep-inducing, apropriately-titled Pajama Party (1964) and the even sillier The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966), which sadly wasted the talents of such excellent screen veterans as Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone. It didn't get any better with the decidely laborious and unamusing farce Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady? (1968). Though conceived by two talented writers (James Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum) who later earned a well-deserved reputation for their rather wittier collaborative effort on M*A*S*H (1972), the humour was as obvious as the title might suggest. The venture, predictably, did not make a screen star out of Phyllis Diller.
In 1954 Weis began to direct episodes for television, a medium to which he found himself eminently suited. In the course of the next 30 years he became one of TV's busiest directors and one of the most accomplished, winning six annual awards from the Directors Guild of America. Ranging across every known genre, he was equally at ease helming the iconic Batman (1966) as he was behind the camera of some 58 episodes of crime-busting, wheelchair-bound Ironside (1967), or guiding four of the best installments of the cult series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974). Weis achieved his greatest success directing a brace of the most enduring episodes of the long-running and much-loved medical comedy "M*A*S*H*". Following his retirement he presided over the Motion Picture Permanent Charities Committee (PCC) and served on the board of the New Mexico Film Council.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
The day after Nyby graduated from Van Nuys High School in California in 1959, he drove to north central Idaho, following a friend to the University of Idaho for college. He stayed at Idaho for two years as a member of the swim team and the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity before transferring to USC. In 1963, the Air Force sent Nyby to Vietnam as a photographer. Four years later, he landed a job as an assistant director; his first directing job was an episode of Ironside (1967). In the years since, he has directed television movies and episodes of many television series, counting his Hill Street Blues (1981) episodes as his favorites.- Director
- Art Director
- Art Department
British director Don Chaffey began his career in the film industry in the art department at Gainsborough Pictures. He began directing in 1951, often working on films aimed at children. He branched out into television in the mid-'50s, turning out many of the best episodes of such classic series as Danger Man (1960), The Prisoner (1967) and The Avengers (1961). Although he worked in many film genres, his best work is generally acknowledged to be the crackerjack fantasy Jason and the Argonauts (1963). On the other hand, he was also responsible for the lugubrious, box-office disaster The Viking Queen (1967), one of the few productions from Hammer Films that lost money. In the late 1970s Chaffey traveled to the US and worked primarily there, often in made-for-TV movies.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Marc Daniels was born on 27 January 1912 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Star Trek (1966), Nash Airflyte Theatre (1950) and Alice (1976). He was married to Emily Daniels and Meg Mundy. He died on 23 April 1989 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Jack Gold was born on 28 June 1930 in London, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for Aces High (1976), The National Health (1973) and Famine (1967). He was married to Denyse Alexander. He died on 9 August 2015.- Additional Crew
- Director
- Writer
Robert Butler was born on 16 November 1927 in Hollywood, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Remington Steele (1982), Hill Street Blues (1981) and The Blue Knight (1973). He was married to Adrienne Hepburn. He died on 3 November 2023 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Norman Tokar (November 25, 1919 - April 6, 1979) was an American director, actor and occasionally writer and producer of serial television and feature films. He directed many of the early episodes of "Leave it to Beaver," but found his greatest success directing over a dozen films for Walt Disney Productions, spanning the 1950s to the 1970s.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Vincent McEveety was born on 10 August 1929 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for The Untouchables (1959), Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958) and Star Trek (1966). He was married to Mary Ann O'Dell. He died on 19 May 2018 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Bernard McEveety was born on 13 May 1924 in New Rochelle, New York, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Gunsmoke (1955), Knight Rider (1982) and Cover Up (1984). He was married to Marion F Bremner and Marion Frances Bremner. He died on 2 February 2004 in Encino, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Gene Nelson was barely a teen when he saw the Fred Astaire movie Flying Down to Rio (1933), which would change his life. It was then that he decided he would be a dancer. After graduating from high school, Nelson joined the Sonja Henie Ice Show and toured for 3 years before joining the Army in World War II. After he was discharged, he appeared in a handful of movies before 1950. He worked with Debbie Reynolds in The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950), Doris Day in Tea for Two (1950) and Virginia Mayo in She's Working Her Way Through College (1952). He would be best known for his role of cowboy Will Parker in Oklahoma! (1955), where he would twirl the lasso to the tune of "Kansas City".
After his dancing days ended he turned to directing TV and films, including two Elvis Presley movies, Kissin' Cousins (1964) and Harum Scarum (1965). For television he directed episodes of I Dream of Jeannie (1965), Star Trek (1966), The Rifleman (1958), The Donna Reed Show (1958) and many others.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Glimpsed here and there throughout the 1950s, usually in amiable supporting roles on film, it was as in television that Jerry Paris found his true calling. In front of the camera, however, most fans will remember him as Jerry Helper, the next-door neighbor of Rob and Laura Petrie (Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore) on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961).
He was born William Gerald Paris on July 25, 1925, in San Francisco, California. His father was a Russian immigrant; his mother, the former Esther Mohr, remarried when Jerry was a small child. Jerry's new stepfather, Milton Grossman, eventually adopted the boy and Jerry thereafter used the name William Gerald Grossman while growing up. He reverted back to his real name when he became an actor. He graduated from both New York University and UCLA, and studied at the Actor's Studio after serving in the Navy during WWII. Starting off onstage in such plays as "The Front Page". He appeared dramatically on Broadway twice, making his debut in "Medea" (1947) in the bit part as a soldier, and later appearing in a 1952 revival of "Anna Christie", which starred Celeste Holm.
He turned to films in 1949 with unbilled bits but slowly progressed to a higher acting tier in such durable films as Outrage (1950), The Wild One (1953), The Caine Mutiny (1954), Marty (1955), The Naked and the Dead (1958) and The Great Impostor (1960). Hyperactive in nature, the tall, dark-haired actor was often cast as the genial or helpful pal of the star. He never found that one film role that might have moved him beyond the secondary character ranks. TV, however, would become a more accepting medium. After appearing as a regular in the series The Untouchables (1959) in 1959, Jerry found himself in classic company on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) in 1961 as next-door-neighbor Jerry Helper, and (of course) pal to Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore.
Loose and fun-loving, Jerry loved to keep the laughs going on- and off-stage and continued to do so -- behind the camera. It was comic actor and "Dick Van Dyke Show" producer Carl Reiner who gave Jerry his first chance to direct on one of the show's episodes. The actor took to it like a duck to water. By the mid-60s, Jerry was a regular director on the show and won an Emmy for his efforts during the 1963-1964 season. Highly encouraged (he also won a Directors Guild Award down the road), he decided to abandon acting and concentrate solely on behind-the-camera work. Working on such movies as Viva Max (1969) and Star Spangled Girl (1971), he eventually returned to familiar territory (TV sitcoms) and found his niche helming several popular shows including Happy Days (1974) (twice Emmy-nominated) and The Odd Couple (1970).
Now and then, Jerry would return to movie-making and helmed his last feature in 1986, Police Academy 3: Back in Training (1986), the year of his death. Diagnosed with brain cancer, he died of complications following surgery. He was 60 years young. Predeceased by his wife, Ruth (Benjamin) Paris, who died in 1980, the couple had three children.- Director
- Producer
- Editorial Department
Jerry London was born on 21 January 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Chiefs (1983), Shogun (1980) and Ellis Island (1984). He has been married to Marilynn Landau since 15 June 1958. They have two children.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Jud Taylor was born on 25 February 1932 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Great Escape (1963), Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1963) and The Fugitive (1963). He was married to Lynn Kressel and Devra Korwin. He died on 6 August 2008 in New York City, New York, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Barry Shear was born on 23 March 1923 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Wild in the Streets (1968), Across 110th Street (1972) and The Name of the Game (1968). He was married to Sondra Joy Roe. He died on 13 June 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
James Goldstone was born on 8 June 1931 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for The Court of Last Resort (1957), Kent State (1981) and Iron Horse (1966). He was married to Ruth Goldstone. He died on 5 November 1999 in Shaftsbury, Vermont, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Editor
Sidney Hayers entered films in the early 1940s, working in the sound department, as a focus puller and in the cutting room before he began his directing career with Rebound (1959) in 1958. The journeyman director's roster of credits also includes episodic TV on both sides of the Atlantic, a multitude of TV movies and second-unit directing chores on epic films like A Night to Remember (1958) and A Bridge Too Far (1977). At the end of his life, he was residing in Spain with his actress-wife Erika Remberg.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Frank Pierson was born on 12 May 1925 in Chappaqua, New York, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Presumed Innocent (1990) and Cool Hand Luke (1967). He was married to Helene Szamet, Dori Pierson and Polly Stokes. He died on 22 July 2012 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Richard T. Heffron was born on 6 October 1930 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Futureworld (1976), The French Revolution (1989) and The St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959). He was married to Lynn Gardner, Terry Catrambone Heffron and Jane Vacho. He died on 27 August 2007 in Seattle, Washington, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Alex Segal was born on 1 July 1915 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The United States Steel Hour (1953), Alcoa Premiere (1961) and Death of a Salesman (1966). He was married to Ruth Worman Storm. He died on 22 August 1977 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Emmy Award-winning director Jack Smight was born in Minneapolis, MN, on March 9, 1925, the offspring of Irish immigrants. After graduating from Cretin High School he served in the US Army Air Force during World War Two, where he flew combat missions in the Pacific Theater. After the war he attended the University of Minnesota, where he met up with an old high-school friend - Peter Graves (they had been matriculating in the theater department as drama students). After graduation they hooked up in Hollywood, where they rented a room and made the rounds, looking for work as actors while Jack worked as a carhop and Graves drove a cab, ignoring the advice of Graves' older brother, James Arness, to head straight back to Minneapolis.
Unlike his friend, Smight did not achieve success as an actor. He became a stage manager and then turned to directing. Graves later said of his friend that his acting background helped him understand actors. "He was also a very intelligent, literate man," Graves said, "who knew how to communicate with the writers." These skills made him a successful director, first in television and then in the movies. In 1959 he won an Emmy Award for Best Direction of a Single Program of a Dramatic Series - Less Than One Hour for Eddie (1958), which starred Mickey Rooney and featured an Emmy-winning script by Ken Hughes. In the 1960s he directed films featuring such A-list talent as Paul Newman and Rod Steiger before moving back to TV in the 1970s, while occasionally directing a feature film.
Jack Smight died of cancer on September 1, 2003 in Los Angeles, California. He was 78 years old.- Producer
- Director
- Script and Continuity Department
Laven, Jules V. Levy and Arthur Gardner met in 1943 in the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Force. They were stationed at the Hal Roach Studio in Culver City, California (with other notables such as Capt. Ronald Reagan, Capt. Clark Gable and Lt. William Holden), making training films. Levy, Gardner and Laven resolved that they would start their own independent motion picture company after they got out of the Air Force; all were discharged in 1945, but their company wasn't formed until 1951 (in the interim, Levy and Laven worked as script supervisors and Gardner as an assistant director and production manager). The first Levy-Gardner-Laven film was Without Warning! (1952). In the decades since they have produced dozens of additional features and several TV series (including The Rifleman (1958), Law of the Plainsman (1959), The Detectives (1959) and The Big Valley (1965)).- Director
- Additional Crew
After moving to California in the 1930s, Jerry Hopper worked as an editor at Paramount Studios.
During World War II he joined the Army and worked as a combat photographer where he was awarded a Purple Heart.
After the war, Hopper returned to Hollywood where he graduated to directing. After working prolifically in film during the Fifties, Hopper switched to television where he went on to direct over 600 episodes before effectively retiring in the early 1970s.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Duke Media Entertainment, led by actor, director, producer, writer and humanitarian, Bill Duke, is dedicated to bringing quality Edutainment to audiences around the globe. Formerly Yagya Productions, Duke Media has successfully produced critically acclaimed film and television content for more than 30 years. Additionally, Duke Media is in process of expanding the brand to involve itself in the development of new media technologies, i.e. cellphone apps, games, and virtual world experiences. Since the early 70s, Bill Duke along with industry veterans Michael Shultz and Gordon Parks, have long paved the way for African Americans in the industry.
Mr. Duke excels in front of and behind the camera. His acting and directing credits are extensive and include stints on such ground breaking television series as Falcon Crest, Fame, Hill Street Blues, Knotts Landing, Dallas, and New York Undercover. His feature credits include Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Get Rich or Die Trying, Deep Cover, Hoodlum, Predator, Menace II Society and Not Easily Broken, to name a few. He has recently completed production on, Blexicans, a new television pilot that takes a comedic look at a mixed race family. His documentaries, Dark Girls and Light Girls, both NAACP Image Award nominees, aired on OWN and were two of the most successful documentaries on the network.
Bill Duke's invaluable contributions to the industry have been recognized by both his peers and the entertainment community. Appointed by former President Bill Clinton to the National Endowment of Humanities, he was appointed to the Board of the California State Film Commission by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and he has been honored by the Directors Guild of America with a Lifetime Achievement Tribute.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Leo Penn was born on 27 August 1921 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Ben Casey (1961), Remington Steele (1982) and The Mississippi (1982). He was married to Eileen Ryan and Olive Deering. He died on 5 September 1998 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
James Neilson was born on 1 October 1909 in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. He was a director and actor, known for General Electric Theater (1953), Night Passage (1957) and Janet Dean, Registered Nurse (1954). He died on 9 December 1979 in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Alex March was born on 4 February 1921 in New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Sunday Showcase (1959), McCloud (1970) and Kraft Suspense Theatre (1963). He died on 11 June 1989 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Editorial Department
- Director
- Producer
Jerry Jameson was born on 26 November 1934 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Jerry is a director and producer, known for Land of the Free (1998), Airport '77 (1977) and Mod Squad (1968).- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Michael Schultz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Cooley High (1975), Car Wash (1976) and Krush Groove (1985). He has been married to Lauren Jones since 6 December 1965. They have two children.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Abner Biberman was born on 1 April 1909 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was a director and actor, known for His Girl Friday (1940), The Golden Mistress (1954) and Winchester '73 (1950). He was married to Sibil Kamban (editor), Helen Churchill Dalby and Tolbie Snyderman. He died on 20 June 1977 in San Diego, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Director Noel Black was born on June 30, 1937, in Chicago, Illinois. He has a B.A. and Masters degree in Film from UCLA. His directing "debut" was with Skaterdater (1966), an 18-minute short that used only music and sound effects to advance the plot. Initially winning the Grand Prix and the Golden Palm Awards at the Cannes Film Festival, the picture went on to win more international film awards in 1966 and 1967 than any other American film. Black is best known for the his first feature-length film, Pretty Poison (1968), regarded by many as a film-noir classic, which starred Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld.- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Piers Haggard was born on 18 March 1939 in London, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for Blow-Up (1966), Conquest (1998) and Pennies from Heaven (1978). He was married to Anna Sklovsky and Christiane Stokes. He died on 11 January 2023 in the UK.- Director
- Additional Crew
- Actor
William D. Russell was born on 30 April 1908 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. He was a director and actor, known for You Are There (1953), The Farmer's Daughter (1963) and Family Affair (1966). He was married to Mota Maye Shaw. He died on 1 April 1968 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Charles T. Barton was born in Oakland, CA, on May 25, 1902. His father managed a candy store, and soon moved the family to Los Angeles, where Charles, nicknamed "Charlie", got a job at age 15 acting as an extra in silent movies. He eventually left acting for a job behind the camera as an assistant director, a position for which he won an Academy Award in 1934. That same year he made his first feature as a director, Wagon Wheels (1934), for Paramount. He stayed at Paramount for several years, turning out four to five pictures a year, but a stint as an assistant to autocratic director Cecil B. DeMille on Union Pacific (1939) resulted in his leaving Paramount for Columbia Pictures. He worked steadily at that studio, directing seven to eight pictures a year, mostly "B" musicals and westerns. In 1945 he left Columbia for Universal Pictures, where he gained a reputation as a first-rate comedy director, especially for Universal's top comedy team, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. He directed what many regard as their best picture, the critically and financially successful Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) (on the other hand, he also directed what many consider their worst picture, Dance with Me, Henry (1956)). Unlike many of the team's directors, Barton actually got along quite well with them, especially Costello, to whom he bore a striking resemblance. The team specifically requested him for "A&C Meet Frankenstein", as their last few pictures had failed and Universal was thinking about dumping them. The film was a huge success and revitalized their career.
As the 1950s progressed Barton began to do less feature work and more television work (he was one of the first feature-film directors to work regularly both in television and films when in 1951 he took over as the house director on The Amos 'n Andy Show (1951)), often for Walt Disney. In the 1960s he became one of the regular directors on the hit comedy series Family Affair (1966) and also directed episodes of several other successful series, such as McHale's Navy (1962), Dennis the Menace (1959) and Hazel (1961).
Charles Barton passed away in Burbank, CA, on December 5, 1981.- Director
- Additional Crew
- Script and Continuity Department
Noted TV series director Gail Mancuso grew up in suburban Cook County, Illinois. Mancuso began her career as an usher of the set of several television talk shows. Later, became a script supervisor for the Showtime Cable Network comedy "Brothers". In 1989, she began serving as associate director for the ABC-TV sitcom series "Roseanne". After one of the show's directors left in 1991, she had the chance to become one of the main directors and continued until the show's eighth season. She went on to direct episodes of many television series like the long-running NBC-TV sitcom "Friends", and the ABC sitcoms "Dharma and Greg" and "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place". In 2007, Gail began working on the CBS-TV sitcom series "Rules of Engagement". She has also directed episodes of ABC-TV's "30 Rock" and NBC-TV's "Scrubs". In 2008, she won a Gracie Award for her work on "30 Rock". In 2011, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her "Modern Family" episode "Slow Down Your Neighbors". In 2012, she reunited with "Roseanne" co-stars Roseanne Barr and John Goodman, both of whom she directed on "Roseanne", in the pilot episode of "Downwardly Mobile", which was commissioned by NBC-TV, but ultimately did not get picked up by the network. In 2013, she won the Emmy Award for directing episode "Arrested" on "Modern Family". Gail is happily married to Brian Downs, a doctor; they have three children. The family divides its' time between their homes in Valencia, California and River Forest, Illinois.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Mel Stuart was born on 2 September 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and director, known for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Running on the Sun: The Badwater 135 (2000) and The Making of the President 1960 (1963). He was married to Roberta Frances Silberman and Harriet Rosalind Dolin. He died on 9 August 2012 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Gary Nelson was born on 6 October 1934 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for The Black Hole (1979), Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977) and Get Smart (1965). He was married to Judi Meredith. He died on 25 May 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.- Director
- Script and Continuity Department
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Leslie H. Martinson was born on 16 January 1915 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Batman: The Movie (1966), Mission: Impossible (1966) and Hot Rod Girl (1956). He was married to Connie Martinson. He died on 3 September 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Harvey Hart was born on 30 August 1928 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a director and producer, known for Passion and Paradise (1989), Shoot (1976) and Folio (1955). He was married to Theresa Hart. He died on 21 November 1989 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Herbert Wise was born on 31 August 1924 in Vienna, Austria. He was a director and producer, known for Skokie (1981), I, Claudius (1976) and Drama 61-67 (1961). He was married to Fiona Walker and Moira Redmond. He died on 5 August 2015 in London, England, UK.- Director
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Herschel Daugherty was born on 27 October 1910 in Lauramie, Indiana, USA. He was a director and actor, known for General Electric Theater (1953), Mildred Pierce (1945) and Star Trek (1966). He died on 5 March 1993 in Encinitas, California, USA.