Paul Wendkos
Encyclopedia
Paul Wendkos was an American
television
and film director
.
Following wartime service in the US Navy and attending Columbia University
on the GI Bill Wendkos made his first feature, a documentary on a school for the blind called Dark Interlude in 1953.
Wendkos's first feature film was The Burglar
http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/26615_BURGLAR. Wendkos's fluid camera technique caught the attention of the head of Columbia Pictures
chief Harry Cohn
who not only wished to distribute the film, but put Wendkos on a contract.
A variety of films followed for Columbia beginning with the hard-hitting crime drama The Case Against Brooklyn
, two suspenseful war dramas Tarawa Beachhead
and Battle of the Coral Sea
, the youth-oriented Gidget
and two sequels Gidget Goes Hawaiian
, Gidget Goes to Rome
as well as Because They're Young
.
Wendkos also directed many episodes of Playhouse 90
, Alcoa Theatre
, Ben Casey
, Dr. Kildare
, Route 66
, The Rifleman
, Mr. Novak
, Honey West
, The Big Valley
, I Spy, The Invaders
and Hawaii Five-O
. With I Spy, Wendkos filmed several interesting episodes but was deemed too "arty" by the producers and let go.
In 1968 Wendkos signed a five picture contract with Mirisch Productions beginning with the war films Attack on the Iron Coast
and Hell Boats
followed by Westerns set in Mexico but filmed in SpainGuns of the Magnificent Seven
and Cannon for Cordoba
. He also made the first feature film for Quinn Martin
, The Mephisto Waltz.
From 1970 until his retirement in 1999, Wendkos specialized in made-for-television movies. One of these was The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story
(1988), based on a TWA hijacking in 1985, picked up five Emmy nominations, including one for Wendkos.
Wendkos was cited by film critic Andrew Sarris
in his book The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968. He is also cited, along with many other directors, in The American Vein: Directors and Directions in Television by Christopher Wicking and Tise Vahimagi, Talisman Books (England), 1979, and E.P. Dutton (United States), 1979; Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 79-52675.
Wendkos married Ruth Bernat on March 1, 1953 and had one son, Jordan Elkan Wendkos. Ruth died in June, 1978. Wendkos married Lin Bolen, Former NBC VP & Producer in 1983 and they lived together happily in Malibu, California until his death. He is survived by his son, Jordan, granddaughter, Justine Wendkos, and his wife Lin Bolen Wendkos.
Wendkos was ill for several years following a stroke
. He died on November 12, 2009 in Malibu, California.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and film director
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:...
.
Following wartime service in the US Navy and attending Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
on the GI Bill Wendkos made his first feature, a documentary on a school for the blind called Dark Interlude in 1953.
Wendkos's first feature film was The Burglar
The Burglar
The Burglar is a 1957 crime/thriller film released by Columbia Pictures, based on the 1953 novel of the same name by David Goodis .-Production background:...
http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/26615_BURGLAR. Wendkos's fluid camera technique caught the attention of the head of Columbia Pictures
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...
chief Harry Cohn
Harry Cohn
Harry Cohn was the American president and production director of Columbia Pictures.-Career:Cohn was born to a working-class German-Jewish family in New York City. In later years, he appears to have disparaged his heritage...
who not only wished to distribute the film, but put Wendkos on a contract.
A variety of films followed for Columbia beginning with the hard-hitting crime drama The Case Against Brooklyn
The Case Against Brooklyn
The Case Against Brooklyn is a 1958 film directed by Paul Wendkos. It stars Darren McGavin and Margaret Hayes. It was based on a True Magazine article I Broke the Brooklyn Graft Scandal by crime reporter Ed Reid...
, two suspenseful war dramas Tarawa Beachhead
Tarawa Beachhead
Tarawa Beachhead is a 1958 film directed by Paul Wendkos. It stars Columbia Pictures contract star Kerwin Mathews in his first leading role and the husband and wife team of Ray Danton and Julie Adams. The working title of the film was Flag over Tarawa and was originally to have starred Ronald...
and Battle of the Coral Sea
Battle of the Coral Sea (film)
Battle of the Coral Sea is a 1959 film directed by Paul Wendkos. It stars Cliff Robertson and Gia Scala.-Plot:The crew of an American submarine are on a reconnaissance mission photographing Japanese installations through a periscope camera. When attacked by the Japanese the submarine is scuttled...
, the youth-oriented Gidget
Gidget (film)
Gidget is a 1959 Columbia Pictures CinemaScope feature film. It stars Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson, and James Darren in a story about a teenager's initiation into the California surf culture and her affiliated romance with a young surfer. The screenplay was written by Gabrielle Upton, a nom de plume...
and two sequels Gidget Goes Hawaiian
Gidget Goes Hawaiian
Gidget Goes Hawaiian is a 1961 musical romantic comedy film starring Deborah Walley and James Darren. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film is a sequel to the 1959 Sandra Dee "beach movie" vehicle Gidget....
, Gidget Goes to Rome
Gidget Goes to Rome
Gidget Goes to Rome is a 1963 Columbia Pictures feature film starring Cindy Carol as the archetypal high school teen surfer girl originally created by Sandra Dee in the 1959 film Gidget. The film is the third of three Gidget films directed by Paul Wendkos and expands upon Gidget's romance with...
as well as Because They're Young
Because They're Young
Because They're Young is a 1960 film from Columbia Pictures, starring Dick Clark as Neil Hendry, an American high school teacher who tries to make a difference in the lives of his students. The film co-starred Tuesday Weld, Warren Berlinger, Roberta Shore, Doug McClure, and Victoria Shaw. It was...
.
Wendkos also directed many episodes of Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California...
, Alcoa Theatre
Alcoa Theatre
Alcoa Theatre is a half-hour anthology series telecast on NBC at 9:30 pm on alternate Monday nights from October 7, 1957 to September 16, 1960. The program also aired under the title Turn of Fate, with the stories depicting the difficulties faced by individuals who are suddenly thrust into...
, Ben Casey
Ben Casey
Ben Casey is an American medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, *, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaffe intoned, "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity." Neurosurgeon Joseph...
, Dr. Kildare
Dr. Kildare
Dr. James Kildare is a fictional character, the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, an early 1950s radio series, a 1960s television series of the same name and a comic book based on the TV show, and a short-lived 1970s television series...
, Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...
, The Rifleman
The Rifleman
The Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran...
, Mr. Novak
Mr. Novak
Mr. Novak is an American dramatic series starring James Franciscus in the title role, which aired on NBC for two seasons, from 1963 to 1965.-Overview:...
, Honey West
Honey West (TV series)
Honey West is an American crime drama television series that aired on ABC during the 1965-1966 television season. The series stars Anne Francis as female private detective Honey West and John Ericson as her partner Sam Bolt....
, The Big Valley
The Big Valley
The Big Valley is an American television Western which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969, which starred Barbara Stanwyck, as a California widowed mother. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman...
, I Spy, The Invaders
The Invaders
The Invaders, a Quinn Martin Production , is an ABC science fiction television program created by Larry Cohen that ran in the United States for two seasons, from January 10, 1967 to March 26, 1968...
and Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
. With I Spy, Wendkos filmed several interesting episodes but was deemed too "arty" by the producers and let go.
In 1968 Wendkos signed a five picture contract with Mirisch Productions beginning with the war films Attack on the Iron Coast
Attack on the Iron Coast
Attack on the Iron Coast is a 1967 British-American Oakmont Productions international co-production war film directed by Paul Wendkos in the first of his five picture contract with Mirisch Productions, and starring Lloyd Bridges, Andrew Keir, Sue Lloyd, Mark Eden and Maurice Denham...
and Hell Boats
Hell Boats
Hell Boats is a 1970 British war film directed by Paul Wendkos that was filmed in Malta. It stars James Franciscus and Elizabeth Shepherd in a story about British Motor Torpedo Boats in the Mediterranean in World War II.-Cast:...
followed by Westerns set in Mexico but filmed in SpainGuns of the Magnificent Seven
Guns of the Magnificent Seven
Guns of the Magnificent Seven is a Zapata Western and the second sequel to the 1960 western film, The Magnificent Seven ....
and Cannon for Cordoba
Cannon for Cordoba
Cannon for Cordoba was a western film that was released in 1970. Filmed in Spain, the large part of the movie takes place in Mexico in 1912...
. He also made the first feature film for Quinn Martin
Quinn Martin
Quinn Martin was one of the most successful American television producers. He had at least one television series running in prime time for 21 straight years , an industry record.-Early life:...
, The Mephisto Waltz.
From 1970 until his retirement in 1999, Wendkos specialized in made-for-television movies. One of these was The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story
The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story
The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story, also marketed as The Flight on video, is a 1988 made-for-TV film based on the actual hijacking of TWA Flight 847 as seen through the eyes of Uli Derickson, the chief flight attendant...
(1988), based on a TWA hijacking in 1985, picked up five Emmy nominations, including one for Wendkos.
Wendkos was cited by film critic Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris is an American film critic and a leading proponent of the auteur theory of criticism.-Career:Sarris is generally credited with popularizing the auteur theory in the U.S...
in his book The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968. He is also cited, along with many other directors, in The American Vein: Directors and Directions in Television by Christopher Wicking and Tise Vahimagi, Talisman Books (England), 1979, and E.P. Dutton (United States), 1979; Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 79-52675.
Wendkos married Ruth Bernat on March 1, 1953 and had one son, Jordan Elkan Wendkos. Ruth died in June, 1978. Wendkos married Lin Bolen, Former NBC VP & Producer in 1983 and they lived together happily in Malibu, California until his death. He is survived by his son, Jordan, granddaughter, Justine Wendkos, and his wife Lin Bolen Wendkos.
Wendkos was ill for several years following a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
. He died on November 12, 2009 in Malibu, California.