Don Siegel

Donald Siegel (October 26, 1912 April 20, 1991) was

an American lm director and producer. His name variously appeared in the credits of his lms as both Don
Siegel and Donald Siegel. He is best known for the
original sci- lm Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956),
as well as ve lms with Clint Eastwood, including the
police thriller Dirty Harry (1971) and the prison drama
Escape from Alcatraz (1979), and John Wayne's nal lm
the 1976 Western The Shootist.

who scored ve of his lms: Coogans Blu, The Beguiled,

Dirty Harry, Charley Varrick and Telefon.
Schifrin composed and recorded what would have been
his sixth score for Siegel on Jinxed! (1982), but it was
rejected by the studio despite Siegels objections. This
was one of several ghts Siegel had on this, his last lm.[3]
Siegel was also important to the career of director Sam
Peckinpah. In 1954, Peckinpah was hired as a dialogue
coach for Riot in Cell Block 11. His job entailed acting as
an assistant to the director, Siegel. The lm was shot on
location at Folsom Prison. Siegels location work and his
use of actual prisoners as extras in the lm made a lasting
impression on Peckinpah. He worked as a dialogue coach
on four additional Siegel lms: Private Hell 36 (1954), An
Annapolis Story, (1955), Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(1956) and Crime in the Streets (1956).[4] 25 years later,
Peckinpah was all but banished from the industry due to
his troubled lm productions. Siegel gave the director
a chance to return to lmmaking. He asked Peckinpah
if he would be interested in directing 12 days of second
unit work on Jinxed!. Peckinpah immediately accepted,
and his earnest collaboration with his longtime friend was
noted within the industry. While Peckinpahs work was
uncredited, it would lead to his hiring as the director of
his nal lm The Osterman Weekend (1983).[5][6]

Early life

Born to a Jewish family[1] in Chicago, he attended schools

in New York and later graduated from Jesus College,
Cambridge in England.[2] For a short time he studied at
Beaux Arts in Paris, France, but left at age 20 and later
made his way to Los Angeles.[2]

Career

Siegel found work in the Warner Bros. lm library after meeting producer Hal Wallis,[2] and later rose to head
of the Montage Department, where he directed thousands of montages, including the opening montage for
Casablanca. In 1945 two shorts he directed, Star in
the Night and Hitler Lives, won Academy Awards, which
launched his career as a feature director.

3 Cameos
He has a cameo role as a bartender in Eastwoods Play
Misty For Me, and in Philip Kaufman's 1978 Invasion
of the Body Snatchersa remake of Siegels own 1956
lmhe appears as a pod taxi driver. In Charley Varrick (a lm slated for Eastwood but ultimately turned
down by the actor), starring Walter Matthau, he has a
cameo as a ping-pong player.

He directed whatever material came his way, often transcending the limitations of budget and script to produce interesting and adept works. He made the original
Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1956. He directed two
episodes of The Twilight Zone, "The Self-Improvement
of Salvadore Ross" and "Uncle Simon". He worked with
Elvis Presley and Dolores del Ro in Flaming Star (1960),
with Steve McQueen in Hell Is for Heroes and Lee Marvin
in the inuential The Killers (1964) before directing a series of ve lms with Clint Eastwood that were commercially successful in addition to being well received by critics. These included the policiers Coogans Blu and Dirty
Harry, the Albert Maltz-scripted Western Two Mules for
Sister Sara, the cynical American Civil War melodrama
The Beguiled and the prison-break picture Escape from
Alcatraz. He was a considerable inuence on Eastwoods
own career as a director, and Eastwoods lm Unforgiven
is dedicated for Don and Sergio".

4 Personal life

From 1948 to 1953 he was married to actress Viveca

Lindfors, with whom he had a son, Kristoer Tabori. He
married Doe Avedon (a former actress and ex-wife of
photographer Richard Avedon) in 1957. They adopted
four children and later divorced. He married Carol Rydall, former assistant to Clint Eastwood, and they remained together until he died at the age of 78 from canHe had a long collaboration with composer Lalo Schifrin, cer in Nipomo, California. He is buried near Highway
1

1 in the coastal Cayucos-Morro Bay District Cemetery.

Siegel was an atheist.[7]

Filmography
Star in the Night (1945 short)

EXTERNAL LINKS

The Shootist (1976)

Telefon (1977)
Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Rough Cut (1980)
Jinxed! (1982)

Hitler Lives (1945 documentary short, uncredited)

The Verdict (1946)
Night Unto Night (1947)
The Big Steal (1949)
The Duel at Silver Creek (1952)
Count the Hours (1953)
China Venture (1953)
Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
Private Hell 36 (1954)
The Blue and Gold (1955)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Crime in the Streets (1956)
Baby Face Nelson (1957)
Spanish Aair (1957)
The Gun Runners (1958)
The Lineup (1958)

6 References
[1] Erens, Patricia (August 1988). The Jew in American Cinema. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-204936.
[2] Munn, p. 75
[3] Reported by the Los Angeles Times in 1982.
[4] Weddle, David (1994). If They Move...Kill 'Em!. Grove
Press. pp. 116119. ISBN 0-8021-3776-8.
[5] Weddle, David (1994). If They Move...Kill 'Em!. Grove
Press. pp. 534535. ISBN 0-8021-3776-8.
[6] "Jinxed!". imdb.com. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
[7] David Robinson, 'Don Siegels stories, The Times, 1 May
1975; pg. 11; Issue 59384; col E.

6.1 Bibliography
Munn, Michael (1992). Clint Eastwood: Hollywoods Loner. London: Robson Books. ISBN 086051-790-X.

Hound-Dog Man (1959)

Edge of Eternity (1959)
Flaming Star (1960)
Hell Is for Heroes (1962)
The Killers (1964)
The Hanged Man (1964)
Stranger on the Run (1967)
Coogans Blu (1968)
Madigan (1968)
Death of a Gunghter (1969)
Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)
The Beguiled (1971)
Dirty Harry (1971)
Charley Varrick (1973)
The Black Windmill (1974)

7 External links
Don Siegel at the Internet Movie Database
Senses of Cinema:
Database

Great Directors Critical

An Academy Salute to Don Siegel, With Curtis Hanson and Clint Eastwood

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