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  • DON SIEGAL


    InformtionFrom IMDb


    Date of Birth
    26 October 1912, Chicago, Illinois, USA


    Date of Death
    20 April 1991, Nipomo, California, USA (cancer)


    Birth Name
    Donald Siegel


    Height
    5' 9" (1.75 m)


    Spouse
    Doe Avedon (1957 - ?)
    Viveca Lindfors (1948 - 1953) (divorced) 1 child


    Trivia
    Siegel and screenwriter Stephen Geller (The Valachi Papers (1972), Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)) once collaborated on a script of "The First Deadly Sin" (based on the novel), to be directed by Siegel. The project fell through, however, and a different version was filmed several years later.


    Father of actor Kristoffer Tabori, born 1952


    Was eager to direct movies as early as 1942, but his contract with Warner Brothers kept him restricted to doing editing and montage sequences. Studio chief Jack L. Warner refused to let Siegel out of his contract because he wanted to utilize his exceptional montage skills.


    Siegel was the first director to be credited by the Director's Guild of America's universal pseudonym Alan Smithee, for Death of a Gunfighter (1969). Siegel wished to remain uncredited because he felt the film's star, Richard Widmark, ruined the picture by insisting on creative control that usurped Siegel's authority as director, and also because Widmark had fired original director Robert Totten, who completed most of the picture, and Siegel felt that if anyone should be credited for the film it should have been Totten and not him.


    He was asked by Richard Widmark to take over the direction of Death of a Gunfighter (1969) from original director Robert Totten. Widmark had Totten fired a week before filming was completed. Siegel finished the film, but refused credit because he felt the film was Totten's, and that he himself had contributed little. Totten refused to take credit because he had been fired. The Directors Guild allowed the two to use the pseudonym "Alan Smithee" for the first time in film history. Siegel writes about the incident in his autobiography, "A Siegel Film."


    Was mentor to Clint Eastwood. Eastwood dedicated his film Unforgiven (1992) to him.


    In Telefon (1977), where Houston, Texas, is the location of a subplot in the story, the interior of the Hyatt Regency is not in the one in Houston but actually the one located at 5 Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, which is the same location for the disaster epic The Towering Inferno (1974). San Francisco was also the setting for three other Siegel films: The Lineup (1958), Dirty Harry (1971) and Escape from Alcatraz (1979).


    In Charley Varrick (1973) and Telefon (1977), a yellow Lincoln Continental sedan is used as part of a major plot in the film. In both films, the Continental sedan is involved in a front-end collision and subsequently totalled.


    During filming of Dirty Harry (1971), Siegel fell ill with the flu, and Clint Eastwood stepped in temporarily as director, during a critical scene involving a suicide jumper. This was Eastwood's first unbilled credit as director.


    Father of Anney Siegel-Wamsat.


    Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945." Pages 997-1001. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.


    He originally intended for Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) to end with the hero, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) on the highway shouting to the motorists, "You're next! You're next!" but Allied Artists wanted a happier ending that assured the audience the hero's efforts had not been in vain. Siegel subsequently added the opening with Miles in the hospital recounting his story to the other two doctors, who find out at the end of the film that the pod people are real and contact the FBI.


    Was Sam Peckinpah's mentor.


    Siegel and producer Walter Wanger had been desperately trying to persuade the warden of San Quentin Prison to allow the use of the facility to film Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), but the warden had adamantly refused. After the final meeting in the prison, when the warden had said there was nothing Siegel or Wanger could do to persuade him to allow filming there, Siegel turned to speak to his assistant, Sam Peckinpah. When the warden heard Peckinpah's name, he asked, "Are you related to Denver Peckinpah?" Sam replied that Denver was his father. It turned out that Denver Peckinpah was a well-known jurist in northern California who had a reputation as a "hanging judge" and the warden had long been an admirer of his. He immediately granted the company permission to shoot the movie in San Quentin.


    Interviewed in Peter Bogdanovich's "Who the Devil Made It: Conversations With Robert Aldrich, George Cukor, Allan Dwan, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Chuck Jones, Fritz Lang, Joseph H. Lewis, Sidney Lumet, Leo McCarey, Otto Preminger, Don Siegel, Josef von Sternberg, Frank Tashlin, Edgar G. Ulmer, Raoul Walsh." NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.


    While filming Flaming Star (1960), for two weeks, he drove new Rolls Royce owned by Elvis Presley.


    He's the son of a mandolin virtuoso.


    Mini Biography
    Don Siegel was educated at Cambridge University, England. In Hollywood from the mid-'30s, he began his career as an editor and second unit director. In 1945 he directed two shorts (Hitler Lives (1945) and Star in the Night (1945)) and won Academy Awards for both. His first feature as a director was 1946's The Verdict (1946). He made his reputation in the early and mid-'50s with a series of tightly made, expertly crafted, tough but intelligent "B" pictures (among them The Lineup (1958), Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)), then graduated to major "A" films in the 1960s and early 1970s. He made several "side trips" to television, mostly as a producer. Siegel directed what is generally considered to be Elvis Presley's best picture, Flaming Star (1960). He had a long professional relationship and personal friendship with Clint Eastwood, who has often said that everything he knows about filmmaking he learned from Don Siegel.
    IMDb Mini Biography By: Otto Oberhauser


    Filmography
    Director
    1. Jinxed! (1982)
    2. Rough Cut (1980)
    ... aka Roughcut
    3. Escape from Alcatraz (1979) (as Donald Siegel)
    4. Telefon (1977)
    5. The Shootist (1976)
    6. The Black Windmill (1974)
    7. Charley Varrick (1973)
    ... aka Kill Charley Varrick (Europe: English title)
    8. Dirty Harry (1971)
    9. The Beguiled (1971) (as Donald Siegel)
    10. Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)
    ... aka Dos mulas para la hermana Sara (Mexico)
    11. Death of a Gunfighter (1969) (as Allen Smithee)
    12. Coogan's Bluff (1968) (as Donald Siegel)
    13. Madigan (1968) (as Donald Siegel)
    14. Stranger on the Run (1967) (TV)
    ... aka Lonesome Gun
    15. "The Legend of Jesse James" (1 episode, 1965)
    - Manhunt (1965) TV episode
    16. "Convoy" (1 episode, 1965)
    - Passage to Liverpool (1965) TV episode
    17. The Hanged Man (1964) (TV)
    18. The Killers (1964) (as Donald Siegel)
    ... aka Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (USA: promotional title)
    19. "Destry" (1 episode, 1964)
    - The Solid Gold Girl (1964) TV episode
    20. "The Twilight Zone" (2 episodes, 1963-1964)
    ... aka The Twilight Zone: The Original Series (Australia)
    ... aka Twilight Zone (USA: new title)
    - The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross (1964) TV episode
    - Uncle Simon (1963) TV episode
    21. "Breaking Point" (1 episode, 1963)
    - There Are the Hip, and There Are the Square (1963) TV episode
    22. "The Lloyd Bridges Show" (1 episode, 1963)
    - A Game for Alternate Mondays (1963) TV episode
    23. Hell Is for Heroes (1962) (as Donald Siegel)
    24. "Bus Stop" (1 episode, 1961)
    - Cherie (1961) TV episode
    25. Flaming Star (1960)
    26. "Alcoa Theatre" (1 episode, 1960)
    - The Silent Kill (1960) TV episode
    27. Hound-Dog Man (1959)
    28. Edge of Eternity (1959) (as Donald Siegel)
    29. "Adventure Showcase" (1 episode, 1959)
    - Brock Callahan (1959) TV episode
    30. The Gun Runners (1958)
    ... aka Gunrunners (International: English title)
    31. The Lineup (1958)
    32. Baby Face Nelson (1957)
    33. Spanish Affair (1957)
    ... aka Aventura para dos (Spain)
    34. Crime in the Streets (1956)
    35. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
    ... aka Sleep No More
    ... aka Walter Wanger's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (USA: complete title)
    36. "Frontier" (1 episode, 1955)
    - Paper Gunman (1955) TV episode
    37. An Annapolis Story (1955)
    ... aka The Blue and the Gold (UK)
    38. Private Hell 36 (1954)
    ... aka Baby Face Killers (USA: reissue title)
    39. Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
    40. "The Lineup" (1 episode, 1954)
    ... aka San Francisco Beat
    - The Paisley Gang (1954) TV episode
    41. China Venture (1953)
    42. "The Doctor" (3 episodes, 1952-1953)
    ... aka The Visitor (USA: syndication title)
    - The Runaways (1953) TV episode
    - Those Who Wait (1952) TV episode
    - No Gods to Serve (1952) TV episode
    43. Count the Hours (1953)
    ... aka Every Minute Counts (UK)
    44. No Time for Flowers (1952)
    45. The Duel at Silver Creek (1952)
    ... aka Claim Jumpers (USA)
    46. The Big Steal (1949)
    47. Night Unto Night (1949)
    48. The Verdict (1946)
    49. Hitler Lives (1945) (uncredited)
    ... aka Hitler Lives?
    50. Star in the Night (1945)


    Producer:
    1. Escape from Alcatraz (1979) (producer) (as Donald Siegel)
    2. The Black Windmill (1974) (producer)
    3. Charley Varrick (1973) (producer)
    ... aka Kill Charley Varrick (Europe: English title)
    4. Dirty Harry (1971) (producer)
    5. The Beguiled (1971) (producer) (as Donald Siegel)
    6. Coogan's Bluff (1968) (producer) (as Donald Siegel)
    7. "The Legend of Jesse James" (producer) (34 episodes, 1965-1966)
    - A Burying for Rosey (1966) TV episode (producer)
    - Wanted: Dead and Only (1966) TV episode (producer)
    - A Field of Wild Flowers (1966) TV episode (producer)
    - Dark Side of the Moon (1966) TV episode (producer)
    - The Hunted and the Hunters (1966) TV episode (producer)
    (29 more)
    8. "Convoy" (producer) (1 episode, 1965)
    - Passage to Liverpool (1965) TV episode (producer)
    9. The Killers (1964) (producer) (as Donald Siegel)
    ... aka Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (USA: promotional title)
    10. Edge of Eternity (1959) (associate producer) (as Donald Siegel)


    Actor:
    1. Into the Night (1985/I) .... Embarrassed Man
    2. Jinxed! (1982) .... Owner Adult Bookstore
    3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) .... Taxi Driver
    4. "McCloud" .... 2nd Desk Sergeant (1 episode, 1975)
    - Return to the Alamo (1975) TV episode .... 2nd Desk Sergeant
    5. Charley Varrick (1973) (as Donald Siegel) .... Murphy
    ... aka Kill Charley Varrick (Europe: English title)
    6. Dirty Harry (1971) (uncredited) .... Pedestrian Passing Harry's Car
    7. Play Misty for Me (1971) (as Donald Siegel) .... Murphy
    8. Coogan's Bluff (1968) (uncredited) .... Elevator Passenger
    9. Faces (1968/I) (uncredited) .... Extra at Whiskey A-Go-Go
    10. The Killers (1964) (uncredited) .... Cook at diner
    ... aka Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (USA: promotional title)
    11. Edge of Eternity (1959) (uncredited) .... Man at motel pool

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 3 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • I guess there's not much one can add to this man's credits,
    when you know that, Clint Eastwood considered him, his mentor!
    He was well known for his montages, including
    the opening of Casablana
    going on to direct a couple of The Twilight Zone.
    and directing Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
    However it was his involvement with Clint Eastwood,
    that brought him prominance, directing
    movies, Coogan's Bluff, Dirty Harry, Two Mules For Sister Sara,
    The Beguiled, Escape From Alcatraz.
    He became Eastwood's mentor, and in the credits of,
    The Unforgiven,Clint credits he and Sergio Leone.


    However the primary reason for this thread, is that
    Don Siegal directed one of the most important movies with Duke,


    The Shootist (1976)


    Need I say more!

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 8 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • THE SHOOTIST
    In my personal opinion this film is well acted top to bottom. Nicely paced and beautifully photographed. And alot of the credit go's to Mr. SIEGEL.

    ''baby sister i was born game and intend to go out that way.''