Matinee Classics - Don Siegel Biography & Filmography

Don Siegel DIRECTOR

PHOTOS

DON SIEGEL BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Donald Siegel was born October 26, 1912 in Chicago, Illinois. Being from a musical family, he was artistically encouraged and was a stage actor during his youth. He attended schools in New York, but went to college in England and graduated from Cambridge University. After, he moved to Los Angeles. Here he became an assistant film librarian at Warner Bros.

Siegel worked his way up the ladder, eventually becoming the head of the montage department. In the forties he began serving as a second unit director, starting with “Sergeant York” (1941) starring Gary Cooper. He was one twice more in “Mission to Moscow” (1943) and “Northern Pursuit” (1943) before assisting director Howard Hawk in his Ernest Hemmingway tale “To Have and Have Not” (1944). In 1945 he finally directed his first feature, the family drama short “Star in the Night”. In the same year he directed another short, a documentary titled “Hitler Lives” (1945). Both of them won Academy Awards. The following year he made his feature film debut with “The Verdict” (1946), an innovative film-noir mystery. His second picture, “Night Unto Night” (1949), was a psychological drama about a suicidal woman (played by his then wife, Viveca Lindfors) and her dying love.

However, he did not find much recognition until the 1950's, when he made a string of crafty, action-packed 'B' features, many of which covered controversial subjects. Such films include “Riot in Cell Block 11” (1954), “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956), and “The Lineup” (1958). In 1959 he began his producing career with “Edge of Eternity”, which he also found a cameo role in.

In the 1960's and early 1970's he graduated to major 'A' pictures. As well, he found himself directing and producing shows on television. He directed two “Twilight Zone” (1963-64) episodes, produced two seasons of “The Legend of Jesse James” (1965-66), and directed and produced one episode of “Convoy” (1965). As for films, he directed Elvis Presley in the musical western “Flaming Star” (1960), Steve McQueen in the war drama “Hell is for Heroes” (1962), and Lee Marvin in the highly influential crime-mystery “The Killers” (1964), which he also produced and played an extra in.

In the late sixties, he began working with Clint Eastwood in a number of commercially successful and critically well received films. His Eastwood vehicles include the action packed “Coogan’s Bluff” (1968) American Civil War melodrama “The Beguiled” (1970), controversial police thriller “Dirty Harry” (1971), and prison-break flick “Escape from Alcatraz” (1979). He also produced all of these. Additionally, Siegel became the actor’s mentor – so much so that Eastwood dedicated his 1992 film “Unforgiven” to the director.

Siegel’s other pictures include John Wayne’s final movie, “The Shootist” (1976), a 1978 remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, and his last effort, the Bette Midler comedy “Jinxed!” (1982). On April 20, 1991, the director passed away in Nipomo, California from cancer. For his success in the motion picture industry, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards gave him a Career Achievement Award.

Filmography

1992 Here and Now

1985 Into the Night

1982 Jinxed!

1980 Rough Cut

1979 Escape from Alcatraz

1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers

1977 Fish

1977 Telefon

1976 The Shootist

1975 McCloud

1974 The Black Windmill

1973 Charley Varrick