Earl Bellamy
Encyclopedia
Earl Arthur Bellamy was an American
film
and television director
, producer
, writer, and set decorator
.
. He was also known as Earl J. Bellamy, or Earl J. Bellamy, Jr. His father was Richard James Bellamy. He moved to Hollywood, California in 1920 with his parents, his father was an railroad engineer
. After graduating from Hollywood High School
in 1935, Bellamy received a degree from Los Angeles City College
and took a job as a messenger for Columbia Studios
. Within four years, Bellamy had worked his way up to second assistant director
before taking time off to serve in the U.S. Navy's
photographic unit during World War II.
When Bellamy returned to Hollywood, he became a well-respected TV director who was particularly adept at Westerns. Although he directed nearly two dozen feature films, Bellamy was best known for his work on The Lone Ranger
, Rawhide
, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
and The Virginian
.
Family fare was his forte in the 1950s; he directed shows like Jungle Jim
, Lassie
, Leave It to Beaver
and The Donna Reed Show
. In the 1960s, he focused on sitcoms like Get Smart
, The Munsters
and McHale's Navy
. Medical dramas, like M*A*S*H, Marcus Welby, M.D.
and Trapper John M.D., kept him busy in the 70s. In the 1966-1967 season, he directed ABC
's The Monroes
starring Michael Anderson, Jr.
, and Barbara Hershey
as orphans trying to hold together a family of siblings in the Wyoming
wilderness. Before retiring in 1986, Bellamy directed the science fiction
miniseries, V, and many episodes of Fantasy Island
and Hart to Hart
.
After his retirement, Bellamy and his wife moved to New Mexico
. The state had provided him with many different filming location
s.
In 2002, the Motion Picture and Television Fund gave him the prestigious Golden Boot Award
.
Bellamy died suddenly on November 30, 2003, in Albuquerque, New Mexico
, at the age of 86. It is reported that he died of an myocardial infarction
(heart attack).
He had three children, Michael, Earl Jr, and Karen. His first wife died 9 years after Earl Jr was born. His second wife (mother of Katherine) committed suicide
. His third wife, Gail, survived him.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and television director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
, producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
, writer, and set decorator
Set decorator
A set decorator is in charge of the set dressing on a film set, which includes the furnishings, wallpaper, lighting fixtures, and many of the other objects that will be seen in the film. Props and set dressing often overlap, but are provided by different departments...
.
Biography
Bellamy was born in Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
. He was also known as Earl J. Bellamy, or Earl J. Bellamy, Jr. His father was Richard James Bellamy. He moved to Hollywood, California in 1920 with his parents, his father was an railroad engineer
Railroad engineer
A railroad engineer, locomotive engineer, train operator, train driver or engine driver is a person who drives a train on a railroad...
. After graduating from Hollywood High School
Hollywood High School
Hollywood High School is a Los Angeles Unified School District high school located at the intersection of North Highland Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California.-History:...
in 1935, Bellamy received a degree from Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College, known as LACC, is a public community college in the East Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard...
and took a job as a messenger for Columbia Studios
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
. Within four years, Bellamy had worked his way up to second assistant director
Assistant director
The role of an Assistant director include tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, maintaining order on the set. They also have to take care of health and safety of the crew...
before taking time off to serve in the U.S. Navy's
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
photographic unit during World War II.
When Bellamy returned to Hollywood, he became a well-respected TV director who was particularly adept at Westerns. Although he directed nearly two dozen feature films, Bellamy was best known for his work on The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture....
, Rawhide
Rawhide (TV series)
Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin is an American children's television program which originally aired in 166 episodes on ABC from October 1954 until August 1959. It starred child actor Lee Aaker as Rusty, a boy orphaned in an Indian raid, who was being raised by the soldiers at a US Cavalry post known...
and The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
.
Family fare was his forte in the 1950s; he directed shows like Jungle Jim
Jungle Jim (TV series)
Jungle Jim is a 26-episode syndicated adventure television series which aired from 1955-1956, starring Johnny Weismuller, as Jim "Jungle Jim" Bradley, a hunter, guide, and explorer in, primarily, Africa. The program should not be confused with Ramar of the Jungle, but is based on the Jungle Jim...
, Lassie
Lassie (1954 TV series)
Lassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a female Rough Collie named Lassie and her companions, human and animal. The show was the creation of producer Robert Maxwell and animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax and was televised from September 12, 1954, to March 24, 1973...
, Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
and The Donna Reed Show
The Donna Reed Show
The Donna Reed Show is an American sitcom starring Donna Reed as the upper middle class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz appears as her pediatrician husband Alex, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen as their teenage children Mary and Jeff. The show originally aired on ABC at 10 pm from September...
. In the 1960s, he focused on sitcoms like Get Smart
Get Smart
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...
, The Munsters
The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
and McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy is an American television sitcom series which ran for 138 half-hour episodes from October 11,1962, to August 31, 1966, on the ABC network. The series was filmed in black and white and originated in a one-hour drama called Seven Against the Sea, broadcast on April 3, 1962...
. Medical dramas, like M*A*S*H, Marcus Welby, M.D.
Marcus Welby, M.D.
Marcus Welby, M.D. is an American medical drama television program that aired on ABC from September 23, 1969, to July 29, 1976. It starred Robert Young as a family practitioner with a kind bedside manner, and was produced by David Victor and David J. O'Connell...
and Trapper John M.D., kept him busy in the 70s. In the 1966-1967 season, he directed ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's The Monroes
The Monroes (1966 TV series)
The Monroes is a 26-segment Western television series which ran on ABC during the 1966-1967 season – the story of five orphans trying to survive as a family on the frontier in the area about what is now Grand Teton National Park near Jackson in northwestern Wyoming.Michael Anderson, Jr., then 24,...
starring Michael Anderson, Jr.
Michael Anderson, Jr.
Michael Joseph Anderson, Jr. is an English actor.He was born in Hillingdon, Middlesex, into a theatrical family. His grandparents and great-great-aunt were acclaimed actors. His father is the film director Michael Anderson, Sr. He is the stepson of actress Adrienne Ellis, and stepbrother of...
, and Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey , also known as Barbara Seagull, is an American actress. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema, in several genres including westerns and comedies...
as orphans trying to hold together a family of siblings in the Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
wilderness. Before retiring in 1986, Bellamy directed the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
miniseries, V, and many episodes of Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:...
and Hart to Hart
Hart to Hart
Hart to Hart is an American television series, starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a wealthy couple who also moonlighted as amateur detectives. The series was created by writer Sidney Sheldon and produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg...
.
After his retirement, Bellamy and his wife moved to New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. The state had provided him with many different filming location
Filming location
A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, in addition to or instead of using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage...
s.
In 2002, the Motion Picture and Television Fund gave him the prestigious Golden Boot Award
Golden Boot Awards
The Golden Boot Awards honor actors, actresses, and crew members who have made significant contributions to the genre of Western television and movies. The award is sponsored and presented by the Motion Picture & Television Fund...
.
Bellamy died suddenly on November 30, 2003, in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
, at the age of 86. It is reported that he died of an myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
(heart attack).
He had three children, Michael, Earl Jr, and Karen. His first wife died 9 years after Earl Jr was born. His second wife (mother of Katherine) committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. His third wife, Gail, survived him.
Films
- Speedtrap (1978) director
- Sidewinder One (1977) director
- Against a Crooked SkyAgainst a Crooked SkyAgainst a Crooked Sky is a 1975 American Western film directed by Earl Bellamy and starring Richard Boone, Stewart Petersen, and Henry Wilcoxon.- Plot summary :...
(1975) director - Walking Tall Part 2Walking Tall Part 2Walking Tall Part 2 is the sequel to the crime/action film, Walking Tall. Walking Tall Part 2 was directed by Earl Bellamy, and produced by Charles A. Pratt. the film starred Bo Svenson as Pusser, who replaced Joe Don Baker who played Pusser in the first Walking Tall film...
(1975) director - Seven Alone (1975) director
- Sidecar Racers (1975) director
- BacktrackBacktrackBacktrack may refer to:* Back Track, a first-person shooter for the Game Boy Advance* BackTrack, a Linux distribution* BackTrack , a British railway history monthly magazine...
(1969) director - Munster, Go Home (1966) director
- FluffyFluffyFluffy may refer to:* Fluffy, stand-up comedian Gabriel Iglesias* Fluffy , an unmanned aerial vehicle* Fluffy transcription factor, a gene of the mold Neurospora crassaFluffy may also refer to:-Comics and literature:...
(1965) director - Three For the ShowThree for the ShowThree for the Show is a 1955 musical comedy remake of Too Many Husbands. It starred actress Betty Grable in her last musical, opposite Jack Lemmon, Gower Champion and Marge Champion.-Cast:*Betty Grable as Julie Lowndes...
(1955) assistant director - It Should Happen to YouIt Should Happen to YouIt Should Happen to You is a romantic comedy film starring Judy Holliday, notable as the first screen appearance of Jack Lemmon, who was then an aspiring young actor. The film was directed by George Cukor and filmed on location in New York City...
(1954) assistant director - ShockproofShockproofShockproof is a 1949 movie starring Cornel Wilde and Patricia Knight.The director of Shockproof, Douglas Sirk, said he took the assignment because the movie dealt with one of his favorite themes: the price of flouting taboos....
(1949) assistant director
Television
- Alfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
Role: Director - The Andy Griffith ShowThe Andy Griffith ShowThe Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
Role: Director - Bachelor Father Role: Director
- The Brian Keith ShowThe Brian Keith ShowThe Brian Keith Show is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 1972 to March 1974. The series stars Brian Keith and Shelley Fabares.-Synopsis:...
Role: Director of some episodes - CHiPsCHiPsCHiPs is an American television drama series produced by MGM Studios that originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to July 17, 1983. CHiPs followed the lives of two motorcycle police officers of the California Highway Patrol...
Role: Director - Castaways on Gilligan's Island (TV Movie) Role: Director
- Code RedCode Red-Media:* Code Red , a DVD company specializing in releasing cult films* Code Red , a 1981–1982 American television series* Code Red, the series of books for teenagers written by Chris Ryan-Music:...
Role: Director - Companions in Nightmare (TV Movie) Role: Assistant Director
- CrusaderCrusader (TV series)Crusader is a half-hour black-and-white American adventure/drama series that aired on CBS for two seasons from October 7, 1955 to December 28, 1956.-Synopsis:...
Role: Director - Daniel BooneDaniel Boone (TV series)Daniel Boone is an American action/adventure television series starring Fess Parker as Daniel Boone that aired from September 24, 1964 to September 10, 1970 on NBC for 165 episodes, and was made by 20th Century Fox Television. Ed Ames co-starred as Mingo, Boone's Native American friend, for the...
Role: Director - Desilu Playhouse Role: Director
- Desperate Mission (TV Movie) Role: Director
- Desperate Women (TV Movie) Role: Director
- The F.B.I. Role: Director
- Fantasy IslandFantasy IslandFantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:...
Role: Director - Fire! (TV Movie) Role: Director
- Flood! (TV Movie) Role: Director
- Future CopFuture Cop (TV series)Future Cop is an American science fiction television series which starred Ernest Borgnine and Michael Shannon. It was based on the TV movie of the same name and predated RoboCop by ten years. The series was aired on ABC in 1976 and was re-piloted as "Cops and Robin" on NBC in 1978...
Role: Director - Get SmartGet SmartGet Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...
Role: Director - Hart to HartHart to HartHart to Hart is an American television series, starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a wealthy couple who also moonlighted as amateur detectives. The series was created by writer Sidney Sheldon and produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg...
Role: Director, Writer - I Spy Role: Director
- Isis Role: Director
- The John Forsythe ShowThe John Forsythe ShowThe John Forsythe Show began as a situation comedy in the fall of 1965 on NBC, but at mid-season it switched to a spy show. In the first phase of the series, John Forsythe appeared as United States Air Force veteran John Foster, who inherited the private Foster School for Girls in San Francisco,...
Role: Director - Knight in Shining Armour (TV Special) Role: Director
- LaramieLaramie (TV series)Laramie is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from 1959 to 1963. Laramie was a Revue Studios production which originally starred John Smith as Slim Sherman, Robert Fuller as Jess Harper, Hoagy Carmichael as Jonesy and Robert Crawford, Jr...
Role: Director - LaredoLaredo (TV series)Laredo is an NBC Western television series starring Neville Brand, William Smith, Peter Brown, and Philip Carey as Texas Rangers. The program premiered on September 16, 1965, and the final new episode was broadcast on April 7, 1967. The series was produced by Universal Television.-Synopsis:Laredo...
Role: Director - Leave It to BeaverLeave It to BeaverLeave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
Role: Director - The Lone RangerThe Lone RangerThe Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture....
Role: Director - M SquadM SquadM Squad is an American police drama television series that ran from 1957 to 1960 on NBC. Its format would later inspire the creation of spoof TV show Police Squad! Its sponsor was the Pall Mall cigarette brand; Lee Marvin, the program's star, appeared in its commercials during the...
Role: Director - M*A*S*H Role: Director
- Matt HelmMatt HelmMatt Helm is a fictional character created by author Donald Hamilton. He is a U.S. government counter-agent—a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of the term as used in spy thrillers.-The character and the series:The...
Role: Director - McHale's NavyMcHale's NavyMcHale's Navy is an American television sitcom series which ran for 138 half-hour episodes from October 11,1962, to August 31, 1966, on the ABC network. The series was filmed in black and white and originated in a one-hour drama called Seven Against the Sea, broadcast on April 3, 1962...
Role: Director - Medical CenterMedical Center (TV series)Medical Center is a medical drama series which aired on CBS from 1969 to 1976.-Synopsis:The show starred James Daly as Dr. Paul Lochner and Chad Everett as Dr. Joe Gannon, surgeons working in an otherwise unnamed university hospital in Los Angeles. The show focused both on the lives of the doctors...
Role: Director - The Mod SquadThe Mod SquadThe Mod Squad is a television series that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. This series starred Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, Clarence Williams III, and Tige Andrews...
Role: Director - The MunstersThe MunstersThe Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
Role: Director - My Three SonsMy Three SonsMy Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS...
Role: Director - O'Connor's Ocean (TV Special) Role: Director
- Partners (TV Series) Role: Director
- Perry MasonPerry Mason (TV series)Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
Role: Director - Pigeon (TV Movie) Role: Director
- The QuestThe Quest (TV series)The Quest, a 15-episode Western television series which aired on NBC beginning September 22, 1976, starring Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson.-Overview:...
Role: Director - RawhideRawhide (TV series)Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
Role: Director - The Restless GunThe Restless GunThe Restless Gun is a western television series that appeared on NBC between 1957 and 1959, with John Payne in the role of Vint Bonner, a wandering cowboy in the era after the American Civil War. A skilled gunfighter, Bonner is an idealistic person who prefers peaceful resolutions of conflict...
Role: Director of some episodes - S.W.A.T.S.W.A.T. (TV series)----S.W.A.T. is a 1970s American television series about the adventures of the WCPD's Olympic Division Special Weapons And Tactics team operating in an unidentified California city....
Role: Director - The San Pedro Beach Bums Role: Director
- Sixth Sense (TV Series) Role: Director
- Starsky and HutchStarsky and HutchStarsky and Hutch is a 1970s American cop thriller television series that consisted of a 90-minute pilot movie and 92 episodes of 60 minutes each; created by William Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and broadcast between April 30, 1975 and May 15, 1979 on the ABC...
Role: Director - Stranded (TV Special) Role: Director
- Stranger on the Run (TV Movie) Role: Assistant Director
- To Rome with LoveTo Rome With LoveTo Rome With Love is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 1969 to September 1971.-Synopsis:To Rome With Love is the story of a widowed college professor, Michael Endicott, who decided to leave his native Iowa following the death of his wife and accept a new position as an instructor...
Role: Director - Trackers (TV Movie) Role: Director
- Trapper John, M.D.Trapper John, M.D.Trapper John, M.D. is an American television medical drama and spin-off of the film MASH, concerning a lovable surgeon who became a mentor and father figure in San Francisco, California. The show ran on CBS from September 23, 1979, to September 4, 1986....
Role: Director - U.S. Marshal Role: Director
- Valentine Magic on Love Island (TV Movie) Role: Director
- Wagon TrainWagon TrainWagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...
Role: Director - Young Dan'l BooneYoung Dan'l BooneYoung Dan'l Boone was a short-lived TV series broadcast on CBS for only four episodes from September 12 to October 10, 1977. The series followed Daniel Boone on his adventures before he was married. His 3 companions were Peter Dawes, a 12-year-old English boy, a runaway slave named Hawk, and a...
Role: Director
External links
- Earl Bellamy at Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
- Filmography by New York Times