‘Cat Ballou’ Director Was 96 Years Old – The Hollywood Reporter

Elliot Silverstein, who has directed episodes of popular TV shows such as Naked city, Twilight Zone And Route 66 Before guiding Lee Marvin to the Academy Award for Best Actor Cat BallouHis first feature film director died on Friday in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 96 years old.

The Boston native also drove A man called a horse (1970), which starred Richard Harris as an English aristocrat who eventually becomes the chief of the indigenous tribe that captured and tortured him. The action film spawned a few sequels.

Most importantly, Silverman was instrumental in shaping the Directors’ Creative Rights Charter.

It was Silverstein who suggested that Marvin be cast in the role of Kid Shailene in the Columbia Pictures film. Cat Ballou (1965) after Kirk Douglas turned down the role in the western comedy. He later threatened to quit when a producer wanted to replace Marvin at the beginning of production with José Ferrer.

Silverstein also came up with the idea for the film’s Greek chorus, played by Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye. These characters were not present in the original script by Frank Pearson and Walter Newman.

“That defined the style of the piece for me,” he said in a 2002 interview with the DGA’s Visual History Programme. “Once I was able to get that, I realized it would give me license to go away with the rest of the characters and be funny.”

The son of a doctor, Elliot Silverstein was born on August 3, 1927 in Boston and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He attended Roxbury Memorial Boys High School. Boston College, where he changed his major from biology to drama; And Yale University to pursue directing.

After producing and directing plays for Brandeis University – including one led by Leonard Bernstein – he has directed and presented productions for the prestigious Sunday TV series The mosque In 1955-1956.

On Broadway in 1958 he directed the comedy Maybe Tuesdaywritten by Mel Tolkien and Lucille Kallen and starring Brett Sommers, Barry Newman and Alice Ghostley, but ran for only five performances.

Silverstein then began working in television series, landing series including… American steel watch, suspicion, The Further Adventures of Queen Ellery, Route 66, Get a gun – you will travel, Naked city, Dr. Kildare, Twilight Zone And Defenders.

Four for him Twilight Zone The episodes were “The Old Man” and “The Passers-by” in 1961, “The Traffickers” in 1962, and “The Moment of the Moment” in 1964.

It was in The Obsolete Man, starring Burgess Meredith as a librarian, that his editor refused to cut the ending of the episode the way he wanted. He later discovered that the director’s rights were limited, and that he only had the right to view the first rough cut and report improvements to the assistant producer.

At Silverstein’s request, DGA Chairman George Sidney authorized the formation of a committee in November 1963. The group, which included Robert Altman and Sidney Pollack and was chaired by Silverstein, met every Sunday for six months and came up with the Creative Commons Act, which was passed in April 1964.

“It was a manifesto for the young Turks from New York who were invading Hollywood, and now we’re going to say how things should be done,” he said.

One of the ads is for the director’s cut. “The arrangement of recorded images and sounds in such a relationship as the director considers appropriate is known as a ‘director’s cut,’” the document reads. “It is the director’s right and creative duty to prepare this cut, and he must be given as much time as he deems necessary to accomplish this task.”

In the fall of 1964, the DGA acquired creative rights, including the director’s cut, in its new contract with the producers. This provision is now considered the cornerstone of all director rights.

For his efforts, Silverstein received the DGA’s Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award in 1985 and was chosen as an honorary life member of the guild in 1990.

Silverstein also directed Occurrence (1967), starring Anthony Quinn, and the famous horror film The Car (1977), starring James Brolin, and more recently episodes of a television series Picket fences And Tales from the Crypt. He taught at the University of Southern California after his retirement.

Survivors include his brother, Jason. He was married three times, including once to actress Evelyn Ward, mother of singer-actor David Cassidy.