| Gordon Douglas | |
|---|---|
| Born | Gordon Douglas Brickner December 15, 1907 New York City, New York, U.S., U.S. |
| Died | September 29, 1993 (aged 85) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Cancer |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Spouse | Julia Mack Douglas |
Gordon Douglas (December 15, 1907 – September 29, 1993) was an American film director, who directed many different genres of films over the course of a five-decade career in motion pictures. He was a native of New York City.
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Born Gordon Douglas Brickner, Gordon Douglas began his career as a child actor. As a teenager, he worked at the Hal Roach Studios, working in the office and appearing in bit parts in various Hal Roach films. He made walk-on appearances in at least three Our Gang shorts: Teacher’s Pet, Big Ears, and Birthday Blues. By 1934, Douglas was assistant to director Gus Meins, and served as assistant director on Laurel and Hardy’s 1934 film Babes in Toyland, and on the Our Gang comedies made between 1934 and mid-1936.
Beginning with Bored of Education in 1936, Our Gang moved from two-reel (twenty-minute) comedies to one-reel (ten-minute) comedies, and Douglas became the senior director of the series. Bored of Education won the 1936 Academy Award for Live Action Short Film,[1] and was the only Our Gang entry ever honored with the award. Douglas remained with the series as director for two years. His Our Gang shorts, featuring Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Porky, Buckwheat, Waldo, Butch, and Woim, are the most familiar in the series’ 22-year canon.
Hal Roach sold the Our Gang unit to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in May 1938. Douglas directed two MGM Our Gangs on loan from Roach before deciding that he could not get used to the more industrialized atmosphere at the larger studio. Returning to his home studio, Douglas directed Zenobia with Oliver Hardy and Harry Langdon, Saps at Sea with Laurel and Hardy,[1] and All-American Co-Ed with former Our Gang member Johnny Downs.
Douglas's last picture for Roach was the Nazi satire The Devil with Hitler (1942). He might have stayed with Roach indefinitely, but Roach turned his studio over to the U. S. Army for the production of wartime training films. Douglas moved on to RKO Radio Pictures, where he directed low-budget entries in the studio's series featuring The Great Gildersleeve, Brown and Carney, The Falcon, and Dick Tracy. He was sometimes billed as Gordon M. Douglas.
He migrated from there to Columbia Pictures in 1948, and then to Warner Bros. in 1950. At Warners, Douglas directed a number of successful films, including Liberace's Sincerely Yours (1955) and the sci-fi classic Them!. Later films for other studios included Bob Hope's Call Me Bwana, Frank Sinatra's The Detective, Sidney Poitier's They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! and Elvis Presley's Follow That Dream.
Gordon Douglas died of cancer on September 29, 1993 in Los Angeles, California, aged 85. He was survived by his wife Julia Mack Douglas, son Gary Douglas, daughter Cathie Graham, and a grandson.[1]
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