Michael Gordon (film director)
| Michael Gordon | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Born |
Irving Kunin Gordon[1] September 6, 1909 Baltimore, Maryland |
| Died |
April 29, 1993 (aged 83) Century City, California |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Cohn |
Michael Gordon (born Irving Kunin Gordon; September 6, 1909 – April 29, 1993) was an American stage actor and stage and film director.
Life and career
Gordon was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and was raised in a middle class Jewish community.[2] He was a member of the Group Theatre (1935–1940), and was blacklisted as a Communist in the days of McCarthyism.[3] He later joined the faculty of the UCLA Theater Department. Gordon summered at Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut. Pinebrook is best known for becoming the summer home of the Group Theatre. Some of the other artists who summered there were: Elia Kazan, Harry Morgan, John Garfield, Lee J. Cobb, Will Geer, Clifford Odets, Howard Da Silva and Irwin Shaw.[4][5]
Because of his being blacklisted, Gordon's Hollywood career falls into two phases. In 1940, he started as a dialogue director and went on to direct B-movies. In the late 1940s, he distinguished himself by directing not just some action movies but also melodramas and films noir. He also directed the 1950 film Cyrano de Bergerac, for which José Ferrer won a Best Actor Academy Award. After his blacklisting, he was forced to stop directing films temporarily, but was called back to Hollywood at the end of the 1950s by producer Ross Hunter, who wanted him to direct Pillow Talk, a vehicle for Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Subsequently, Gordon's second creative phase was concerned with light-hearted comedy films.
Gordon was the maternal grandfather of American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and editor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.[6]
Filmography as director
- Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood (1942)
- Crime Doctor (1943)
- The Web (1947)
- Another Part of the Forest (1948)
- An Act of Murder (1948)
- The Lady Gambles (1949)
- Once More, My Darling (1949)
- Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
- I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1951)
- The Secret of Convict Lake (1951)
- Pillow Talk (1959)
- Portrait in Black (1960)
- Boys' Night Out (1962)
- Move Over, Darling (1963)
- For Love or Money (1963)
- A Very Special Favor (1964)
- Texas Across the River (1966)
- How Do I Love Thee? (1970)
References
- ↑ http://dvd-copy.com/people/Michael-Gordon/0330456/bio.htm
- ↑ Davis, Ronald L. (2005). Just making movies: company directors on the studio system. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 104. ISBN 1-57806-691-3.
- ↑ Honan, William H. (May 4, 1993). "Michael Gordon, Comic Director On Stage and Screen, Dies at 83". The New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- ↑ Pinewood Lake website retrieved on 2010-09-10
- ↑ Images of America, Trumbull Historical Society, 1997, p. 123
- ↑ Lidz, Frank (2007-03-25). "From Alien Boy to Growing Star in the Indie Universe". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
External links
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