Don Siegel

Donald Siegel (October 26, 1912 April 20, 1991) wasan American lm director and producer. His name var-iously appeared in the credits of his lms as both DonSiegel and Donald Siegel. He is best known for theoriginal sci- lm Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956),as well as ve lms with Clint Eastwood, including thepolice thriller Dirty Harry (1971) and the prison dramaEscape from Alcatraz (1979), and JohnWayne's nal lmthe 1976 Western The Shootist.

1 Early lifeBorn to a Jewish family[1] in Chicago, he attended schoolsin New York and later graduated from Jesus College,Cambridge in England.[2] For a short time he studied atBeaux Arts in Paris, France, but left at age 20 and latermade his way to Los Angeles.[2]

2 CareerSiegel found work in the Warner Bros. lm library af-ter meeting producer Hal Wallis,[2] and later rose to headof the Montage Department, where he directed thou-sands of montages, including the opening montage forCasablanca. In 1945 two shorts he directed, Star inthe Night and Hitler Lives, won Academy Awards, whichlaunched his career as a feature director.He directed whatever material came his way, often tran-scending the limitations of budget and script to pro-duce interesting and adept works. He made the originalInvasion of the Body Snatchers in 1956. He directed twoepisodes of The Twilight Zone, "The Self-Improvementof Salvadore Ross" and "Uncle Simon". He worked withElvis Presley and Dolores del Ro in Flaming Star (1960),with SteveMcQueen inHell Is for Heroes and LeeMarvinin the inuential The Killers (1964) before directing a se-ries of ve lms with Clint Eastwood that were commer-cially successful in addition to being well received by crit-ics. These included the policiers Coogans Blu and DirtyHarry, the Albert Maltz-scripted Western Two Mules forSister Sara, the cynical American Civil War melodramaThe Beguiled and the prison-break picture Escape fromAlcatraz. He was a considerable inuence on Eastwoodsown career as a director, and Eastwoods lm Unforgivenis dedicated for Don and Sergio".He had a long collaboration with composer Lalo Schifrin,

who scored ve of his lms: Coogans Blu, The Beguiled,Dirty Harry, Charley Varrick and Telefon.Schifrin composed and recorded what would have beenhis sixth score for Siegel on Jinxed! (1982), but it wasrejected by the studio despite Siegels objections. Thiswas one of several ghts Siegel had on this, his last lm.[3]

Siegel was also important to the career of director SamPeckinpah. In 1954, Peckinpah was hired as a dialoguecoach for Riot in Cell Block 11. His job entailed acting asan assistant to the director, Siegel. The lm was shot onlocation at Folsom Prison. Siegels location work and hisuse of actual prisoners as extras in the lm made a lastingimpression on Peckinpah. He worked as a dialogue coachon four additional Siegel lms: Private Hell 36 (1954), AnAnnapolis Story, (1955), Invasion of the Body Snatchers(1956) and Crime in the Streets (1956).[4] 25 years later,Peckinpah was all but banished from the industry due tohis troubled lm productions. Siegel gave the directora chance to return to lmmaking. He asked Peckinpahif he would be interested in directing 12 days of secondunit work on Jinxed!. Peckinpah immediately accepted,and his earnest collaboration with his longtime friend wasnoted within the industry. While Peckinpahs work wasuncredited, it would lead to his hiring as the director ofhis nal lm The Osterman Weekend (1983).[5][6]

3 CameosHe has a cameo role as a bartender in Eastwoods PlayMisty For Me, and in Philip Kaufman's 1978 Invasionof the Body Snatchersa remake of Siegels own 1956lmhe appears as a pod taxi driver. In Charley Var-rick (a lm slated for Eastwood but ultimately turneddown by the actor), starring Walter Matthau, he has acameo as a ping-pong player.

4 Personal lifeFrom 1948 to 1953 he was married to actress VivecaLindfors, with whom he had a son, Kristoer Tabori. Hemarried Doe Avedon (a former actress and ex-wife ofphotographer Richard Avedon) in 1957. They adoptedfour children and later divorced. He married Carol Ry-dall, former assistant to Clint Eastwood, and they re-mained together until he died at the age of 78 from can-cer in Nipomo, California. He is buried near Highway

1

2 7 EXTERNAL LINKS

1 in the coastal Cayucos-Morro Bay District Cemetery.Siegel was an atheist.[7]

5 Filmography Star in the Night (1945 short) Hitler Lives (1945 documentary short, uncredited) The Verdict (1946) Night Unto Night (1947) The Big Steal (1949) The Duel at Silver Creek (1952) Count the Hours (1953) China Venture (1953) Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) Private Hell 36 (1954) The Blue and Gold (1955) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Crime in the Streets (1956) Baby Face Nelson (1957) Spanish Aair (1957) The Gun Runners (1958) The Lineup (1958) Hound-Dog Man (1959) Edge of Eternity (1959) Flaming Star (1960) Hell Is for Heroes (1962) The Killers (1964) The Hanged Man (1964) Stranger on the Run (1967) Coogans Blu (1968) Madigan (1968) Death of a Gunghter (1969) Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) The Beguiled (1971) Dirty Harry (1971) Charley Varrick (1973) The Black Windmill (1974)

The Shootist (1976) Telefon (1977) Escape from Alcatraz (1979) Rough Cut (1980) Jinxed! (1982)

6 References[1] Erens, Patricia (August 1988). The Jew in American Cin-

ema. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20493-6.

[2] Munn, p. 75

[3] Reported by the Los Angeles Times in 1982.

[4] Weddle, David (1994). If They Move...Kill 'Em!. GrovePress. pp. 116119. ISBN 0-8021-3776-8.

[5] Weddle, David (1994). If They Move...Kill 'Em!. GrovePress. pp. 534535. ISBN 0-8021-3776-8.

[6] "Jinxed!". imdb.com. Retrieved March 6, 2012.

[7] David Robinson, 'Don Siegels stories, The Times, 1 May1975; pg. 11; Issue 59384; col E.

6.1 Bibliography Munn, Michael (1992). Clint Eastwood: Holly-woods Loner. London: Robson Books. ISBN 0-86051-790-X.

7 External links Don Siegel at the Internet Movie Database Senses of Cinema: Great Directors CriticalDatabase

AnAcademy Salute toDon Siegel,With Curtis Han-son and Clint Eastwood

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