Career Highlights: Blade Runner, All in the Family, Twice in a Lifetime
First Major Screen Credit: Spike Jones: The Best of Spike Jones, Vol. 1 (1955)
Biography
Born in Washington, PA, Bud Yorkin attended Carnegie Tech after service in the U.S. Navy beginning at age 16, and became a television engineer at NBC in 1949. He was already an established producer/director on television, specializing in variety shows featuring Martin and Lewis, Abbott and Costello, and George Gobel. He formed a partnership with producer Norman Lear in 1959, which yielded several Yorkin-directed films including Come Blow Your Horn (1965), Divorce American Style (1967), Inspector Clouseau (1968 -- starring Alan Arkin), and Start the Revolution Without Me (1970). In the early '70s, Yorkin and Lear created All in the Family, a groundbreaking topical situation comedy that completely redefined television comedy with its relatively realistic scripts and subject matter, for which Yorkin was executive producer. Since then his film career has resumed without exceptional success, including an appearance as an actor in 1990's For the Boys. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
After his split with Lear, Yorkin went on to form Bud Yorkin Productions. His first sitcom after the split was the unsuccessful Sanford and Son spin-off sitcom Grady. In 1976, he formed TOY Productions with Saul Turteltaub and Bernie Orenstein (who produced Sanford and Son from 1974-1977), but their two hits were What's Happening!! and Carter Country.
Yorkin is the father of television writer and producer Nicole Yorkin. He is married to actress Cynthia Sikes. He is a dedicated fan of famous rock band The Knack, owning all of their albums and having seen them live a total of four times.
Credited as co-executive producer of Blade Runner on IMDB [1], in the documentary "On the edge of Blade Runner"[2] he is also quoted as "Co-financier".