Don Siegel

Former actor who joined Warner Bros. in 1933 as an assistant film librarian and worked his way up to head of the montage department. Siegel directed shorts in the 1940s, notably the Oscar-winning "Star in the Night" (2-reel) and "Hitler Lives?" (documentary), both in 1945. He made his feature debut the following year with "The Verdict".

By the late 1950s Siegel had established himself as an inspired orchestrator of tense, action-packed "B" thrillers, including the controversially violent "Riot in Cell Block 11" (1954), the classic sci-fi anti-totalitarian parable "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956), the crime melodrama "Baby Face Nelson" (1957) and "The Killers" (1964), an uncompromising remake of Robert Siodmak's 1946 underworld saga featuring a hot-tempered Ronald Reagan in his last screen appearance. These films attracted the attention of the French CAHIERS DU CINEMA critics who praised Siegel's technical finesse and no-nonsense approach to a quintessentially American genre.

Siegel went on to enjoy a prolific and productive association with Clint Eastwood, directing the actor in "Coogan's Bluff" (1968), "The Beguiled" (1971) and "Dirty Harry" (1973) which began the classic urban crime series. Other directors followed, but in the character of San Francisco police detective "Dirty" Harry Callahan, Eastwood became the ultimate embodiment of one of Siegel's favorite trademarks, the avenging "rogue cop." Siegel also appeared (as Murphy the bartender) in the Eastwood-directed "Play Misty for Me" (1971) and in the 1978 remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". His son Kristoffer Tabori, from his marriage to actress Viveca Lindfors (1945-53), is an actor.

• Also Credited As:
  Alan Smithee, Donald Siegel
• Born:
  October 26, 1912 in Chicago, Illinois
• Died:
  April 20, 1991.
• Job Titles:
  Director, Producer, Actor, Assistant editor, Assistant film librarian, Studio montage department head

Significant Others

• Wife: Carol Rydall.

Education

• Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, England

Milestones

• 1930 Performed with Hollywood's Contemporary Theatre Group
• 1933 Joined Warner Bros. As assistant film librarian (hired by Hal Wallis)
• 1939 Organized and headed Warner Bros. Montage department
• 1946 Feature film directorial debut, "The Verdict"
• 1953 TV directing debut, "The Doctors"
• 1959 First film as producer, "Edge of Eternity" (also director and first cameo appearance)
• 1965 Directed first TV movie, "The Hanged Man"
• 1971 First film as actor only, "Play Misty for Me"
• 1980 Subject of a Dutch TV documentary, "Don Siegel--Last of the Independents"
• 1982 Suffered a heart attack during the filming of "Jinxed" and his former assistant director on "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" Sam Peckinpah directed some of the film without credit
• Acted with RADA in London
• Directed several shorts in the early 1940s
• Promoted to assistant editor, then head of insert department, Warner Bros.
• Worked as second unit director for Michael Curtiz, Raoul Walsh and others and shot transition sequences for "City for Conquest" (1940) and "Blues in the Night" (1941) and compiled montages for "Casablanca", Yankee Doodle Dandy" (both 1942), and "Passage to Marseilles" (1944)
• Worked in TV as director and producer; shows include "Johnny North" and "The Legend of Jesse James"