Boris Sagal

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)

Boris Sagal (October 18, 1923 - May 22, 1981) was an American television and film director.

Born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, Sagal emigrated to the United States where he attended the Yale School of Drama. Probably best known for directing the cult classic film The Omega Man and the 1965 Elvis Presley vehicle Girl Happy, Sagal had a long and relatively undistinguished career in Hollywood as a television director. His many TV credits include episodes of The Twilight Zone, "T.H.E. Cat", Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Columbo, Peter Gunn, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He also directed the 1972 television adaptation of Percy MacKaye's play The Scarecrow, for PBS. He was nominated for Emmys for his direction of the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man and, posthumously, Masada.

Sagal was killed in a freak accident during production of the miniseries World War III, when he was nearly decapitated after walking into the tail rotor blades of a helicopter in the parking lot of the Timberline Lodge in Oregon - the same lodge used for the exterior aerial shots of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. Sagal was replaced with another director the next day.

Sagal's death is eerie in that among his directorial credits was the pilot episode of the popular TV series Combat!. This series starred Vic Morrow, who also died from being struck by the rotor blade of a helicopter a little over a year after Sagal's death while shooting Twilight Zone: The Movie.

He is the father of Katey Sagal, Joe Sagal, and twins Jean Sagal and Liz Sagal by his first wife, Sara Zwilling, who died in 1975. His second wife was Marge Champion, to whom he was married from January 1, 1977 until his death.

There is a directing fellowship in his name at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts.

External links

• Boris Sagal at the Internet Movie Database Vlastným menom Boris Šága)