Donald Siegel was an American film and television director and producer.
18 Facts About Don Siegel
2.
Don Siegel directed the science-fiction horror film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as well as five films with Clint Eastwood, including the police thriller Dirty Harry and the prison drama Escape from Alcatraz.
3.
Don Siegel directed John Wayne's final film, the Western The Shootist.
4.
Don Siegel was born in 1912 to a Jewish family in Chicago; his father was a mandolin player.
5.
Don Siegel attended schools in New York and later graduated from Jesus College, Cambridge in England.
6.
Don Siegel directed whatever material came his way, often transcending the limitations of budget and script to produce interesting and adept works.
7.
Don Siegel made the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, described by The Guardian in 2014 as a "fatalistic masterpiece" and "a touchstone for the sci-fi genre" which spawned three remakes.
8.
Don Siegel worked with Eli Wallach in The Lineup, Elvis Presley and Dolores del Rio in Flaming Star, with Steve McQueen in Hell Is for Heroes, and Lee Marvin in the influential The Killers before directing five of Eastwood's films that were commercially successful in addition to being well received by critics.
9.
Don Siegel was a considerable influence on Eastwood's own career as a director, and Eastwood's film Unforgiven is dedicated "for Don and Sergio".
10.
Don Siegel had a long collaboration with composer Lalo Schifrin, who scored five of his films: Coogan's Bluff, The Beguiled, Dirty Harry, Charley Varrick, and Telefon.
11.
Don Siegel was important to the career of director Sam Peckinpah.
12.
Don Siegel's job entailed acting as an assistant to the director, Siegel.
13.
Don Siegel worked as a dialogue coach on four additional Siegel films: Private Hell 36, An Annapolis Story, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Crime in the Streets.
14.
Don Siegel gave the director a chance to return to filmmaking.
15.
Don Siegel has a small role as a bartender in Eastwood's Play Misty for Me, and in Dirty Harry.
16.
Don Siegel appears in the 1985 John Landis film Into the Night.
17.
Don Siegel married Carol Rydall, former secretary to Clint Eastwood.
18.
Don Siegel is buried near Highway 1 in the coastal Cayucos-Morro Bay District Cemetery.