Michael Gordon
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Michael Gordon
Biography
Educated at Johns Hopkins and Yale, Michael Gordon spent five years (1935 to 1940) as a director of the Group Theatre. Gordon was brought to Hollywood in 1940 as dialog director for Columbia Pictures. His earliest directorial credits include several of Columbia's "Boston Blackie" entries. Moving to Universal, he was elevated to "A" productions like Another Part of the Forest (1949). His crowning achievement during the first phase of his Hollywood career was the 1950 cinemadaption of Cyrano de Bergerac. Within a year of this triumph, Gordon couldn't get work; because he refused to name names before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, he was blacklisted in Tinseltown. In his eight years away from films, Gordon helmed one film in Australia, 1953's Wherever She Goes, then directed such Broadway productions as The Tender Trap. He was reinstated in Hollywood by Universal producer Ross Hunter, who engaged Gordon as director of the frothy Doris Day-Rock Hudson hit Pillow Talk (1959). After completing his final film, How Do I Love Thee?, Michael Gordon joined the faculty of the UCLA Theatre Arts Department. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviFilmography:
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Michael Gordon
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Michael Gordon (film director)
For other people of the same name, see Michael Gordon (disambiguation).
| Michael Gordon | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Irving Kunin Gordon[1] September 6, 1909 Baltimore, Maryland |
| Died | April 29, 1993 (aged 83) Century City, California |
| Spouse | ? Cohn |
Michael Gordon (born Irving Kunin Gordon; September 6, 1909 – April 29, 1993) was an American stage actor and stage and film director.
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Life and career
Gordon was born in Baltimore and 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 Theatre Arts 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 actor 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)
- Wherever She Goes (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)
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. pp. 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. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/04/obituaries/michael-gordon-comic-director-on-stage-and-screen-dies-at-83.html. 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. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/movies/25lidz.html?_r=1&ref=movies&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
External links
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Big Noise from Nicaragua
(1992 Album by Michael Gordon)
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