June 20, 2020
Emmy Award-winning film and television director passed away
in Woodland Hills, Calif.
Hale was born in Rome, Georgia to Alma and William Hale.
As a college freshman, he worked as an announcer on an Atlanta television station. While watching
movies on his night shift, he was inspired to become a film director. After
graduating USC film school in Los Angeles,
Hale's student film on the Watts
Towers caught director
George Stevens' eye. Stevens hired Hale to direct the second unit on The
Greatest Story Ever Told, beginning a creative mentorship that propelled Hale's
career. In the mid-1960's, Hale began directing feature films and TV movies for
Universal Studios. Among those films were How I Spent My Summer Vacation, which
starred Robert Wagner, Peter Lawford, and Jill St. John. In a fan letter from a
young Steven Spielberg praising Hale's film, Spielberg wrote, "I'd like to
express how much I truly admire your masterful handling of the show. Each reel
manifested itself as the work of sheer talent. I was totally beside myself in
admiration of your tremendous dexterity in directing." Other films and
television shows Hale directed during that period were Journey To Shiloh, with
James Caan, Michael Sarrazin, and Harrison Ford, Run For Your Life with Ben
Gazzara, and numerous episodes of Night Gallery and Kojak. During the 1970's,
Hale directed a string of successful television series, including The FBI, The
Invaders, The Streets of San Francisco and Barnaby Jones. He went on to direct
several award-winning mini-series. Notable were Murder in Texas, Lace, People
Like Us, and The Murder of Mary Phagan, winning a Peabody Award and a Primetime
Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series (1988).Among the many wonderful
actors Hale directed were Helen Mirren, Jack Lemmon, Ava Gardner, Robert
Mitchum, Eva Marie Saint, Omar Shariff, Sam Elliot, Angela Lansbury, Andy
Griffith, Farah Fawcett and Michael Douglas. Hale is survived by his wife,
Trudy Hale of Virginia, and his daughter and son, Tempe
and Charlie Hale of Los Angeles.
A celebration of his life will be held at a future date to be announced.
HALE, William
Born: 7/11/1931, Rome, Georgia,
U.S.A.
Died: 6/10/2020, Woodland Hills, California,
U.S.A.
William Hale’s
westerns – director:
Cheyenne
(TV) – 1955
The Virginian (TV) – 1966
Gunfight in Abilene
– 1967
Journey to Shiloh – 1968
Lancer (TV) – 1968-1969
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