Jack Arnold (director)

Jack Arnold (October 14, 1916^[1] – March 17, 1992) was an American actor, film and television director, best known as one of the leading filmmakers of 1950s science fiction films.

Life and career

Born Jack Arnold Waks in New Haven, Connecticut, as a child he read a lot of science fiction, which laid the foundations for his genre films of the 1950s.

During World War II, Arnold had intended to become a pilot but was instead placed in the Signal Corps. While there, he learned the techniques of film making from Robert Flaherty.^[2]

Arnold directed a number of 1950's science fiction films. The best known of these, It Came from Outer Space (1953), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Tarantula (1955), and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) are noted for their atmospheric black-and-white cinematography and sophisticated scripts. Later, he worked as the director of The Mouse That Roared (1959), in which Peter Sellers played three roles, one of them in drag.

Arnold began his television career in 1955 with several episodes of Science Fiction Theater. He went on to direct the long-running television series Perry Mason and Peter Gunn. He also directed episodes of such television shows as Alias Smith and Jones, The Fall Guy, The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, Wonder Woman, Mr. Terrific, Mr. Lucky, and The San Pedro Beach Bums, as well as the 1980 TV movie Marilyn: The Untold Story.

Arnold died of arteriosclerosis in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California at the age of 75.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Jack Arnold at the Internet Movie Database
• Jack Arnold at Find a Grave
• Jack Arnold