Tom Gries
Directing
Born 1922-12-20
Died 1977-01-03
Chicago, Illinois, USA
70 credits
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Thomas S. "Tom" Gries (20 December 1922; Chicago, Illinois – 3 January 1977; Pacific Palisades, California) was an American TV and film director, writer and producer.
Educated at the Loyola Academy and Georgetown University, Gries began working in TV in the 1950s as a writer and director, on such programmes as Bronco,"Rat Patrol", Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Westerner, The Rifleman, East Side/West Side, Mission: Impossible, Route 66, Batman and I Spy. He won Emmy Awards for his direction on East Side/West Side in 1964 and The Glass House in 1972.
In the cinema, Gries directed some low-budget movies in the 1950s before concentrating his efforts more on TV. In the late 1960s, he wrote and directed what is generally acknowledged to be his greatest work in either medium, the western Will Penny, which starred Charlton Heston and was released in 1968. It was based on an episode of the TV series The Westerner that Gries wrote and directed in 1960, entitled "Line Camp". Gries subsequently made two other films with Heston, the much less successful Number One, and The Hawaiians, and directed several other films with other high profile actors such as Burt Reynolds and Charles Bronson into the 1970s, though they failed to reach the critical approval that Will Penny received. The most successful of his later works was Helter Skelter, made in 1976, which was a TV film based on the notorious Charles Manson Family.
During post-production on his final film, The Greatest (1977), a biography on boxer Muhammed Ali (in which Ali also played himself), Tom Gries collapsed and died of a heart attack while playing tennis. He was 54 years old.
He is the father of actor/director Jon Gries (who appeared under the name Jon Francis in Will Penny as a child actor).
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Filmography
— top 60 of 70
Directing
48 credits
Batman
Mission: Impossible
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
The Defenders
Combat!
Route 66
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Kraft Suspense Theatre
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Adventures in Paradise
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
State Trooper
The Detectives
Felony Squad
Tombstone Territory
Stoney Burke
Honey West
Checkmate
I Spy
The Rat Patrol
Cain's Hundred
Alcoa Theatre
Johnny Ringo
The Monroes
Science Fiction Theatre
100 Rifles
The Westerner
Breakheart Pass
Will Penny
East Side/West Side
TV Reader's Digest
The Court of Last Resort
The Man and the Challenge
Helter Skelter
Breakout
For the People
QB VII
The Hawaiians
The Rounders
The Greatest
Reporter
Helter Skelter
The Glass House
The Migrants
Lady Ice
Earth II
Number One
Writing
17 credits
The Rifleman
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Bronco
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
Lock-Up
The Rat Patrol
Johnny Ringo
Assignment: Underwater
Science Fiction Theatre
100 Rifles
The Westerner
Will Penny
The Unexpected
Reporter
Mustang!
The Bushwhackers
King Dinosaur
Producing
3 credits
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