Full Name Danny Marcus Name Marc Daniels Nationality American Role Television Director | Education University of Michigan Occupation Television director | |
Born January 27, 1912 ( 1912-01-27 ) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. Died April 23, 1989, Santa Monica, California, United States Spouse Emily Daniels (m. 1951–1989) Awards Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation Movies Planet Earth, Squeeze a Flower, Lucy Calls the President, Magic Formula, The Big Fun Carnival Similar People Gene Roddenberry, Jerome Bixby, Franklin J Schaffner, John D F Black, George Pal | ||
Alma mater University of Michigan | ||
Marc Daniels joins in on his daughter's dance
Marc Daniels (January 27, 1912 – April 23, 1989), born Danny Marcus, was an American television director.
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Life and career
Daniels was a graduate of the University of Michigan. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II and until 1946, Daniels was hired by CBS to direct its first dramatic anthology program, Ford Theater, mastering live television direction. He was hired to direct the first 38 episodes of I Love Lucy, an early filmed series. Daniels recommended Vivian Vance for the role of Ethel Mertz. Daniels, along with cinematographer Karl Freund, has been credited with introducing the three-camera technique of filming as opposed to the conventional one-camera. In a 1977 interview, Daniels noted that he left I Love Lucy to take another job that paid more. "Maybe it was a stupid thing to do," he said. "But then we didn't know we were creating history. We were just doing a show".
In addition to I Love Lucy, Daniels also directed episodes of Where's Raymond?, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Fame, Alice, Hogan's Heroes, and The Andros Targets. To science fiction fans, Daniels is perhaps best known for directing fifteen episodes of Star Trek (including the episode "Mirror, Mirror") and writing an episode of the animated series ("One of Our Planets is Missing"). Near the end of his career, Daniels worked with Lucille Ball again on her last series, Life with Lucy (1986).
He had an uncredited appearance (via a photograph) as Dr. Jackson Roykirk in the Star Trek episode "The Changeling", which he also directed.
During his career, Daniels was nominated for two Primetime and one Daytime Emmy award, two Directors Guild of America awards, and two Hugo Awards. He won one Hugo, a joint award in 1967 with Gene Roddenberry for "Best Dramatic Presentation" for the Star Trek episode "The Menagerie".
Death
He died of congestive heart failure on April 23, 1989 in Santa Monica, California at the age of 77. His death harkened back, coincidentally, to the beginning of his television career: Daniels died just three days before Lucille Ball, who also died at age 77 from a heart-related illness.