Gerd Oswald Biography

American film director

Gerd Oswald (June 9, 1919 – May 22, 1989) was a German director of American films and television.

Biography

Born in Berlin, Oswald was the son of German film director Richard Oswald and actress Käthe Oswald. He worked as a child actor before emigrating to the United States in 1938. Early production jobs at low-budget studios like Monogram Pictures prepared Oswald for a directorial career.

Oswald's film credits include A Kiss Before Dying (1956), Valerie (1957), Crime of P*ion (1957), Brainwashed (1960), and Bunny O'Hare (1971).

His television credits include Perry Mason, Blue Light, Bonanza, The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, Star Trek, Gentle Ben, It Takes a Thief, Rawhide, and The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series). Fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 know Oswald as the director of the 1966 film Agent for H.A.R.M.

He was an *istant director for 20 years, including on his father's film The Captain from Köpenick (completed in 1941, but only released in 1945), aka P*port to Heaven and I Was a Criminal.

Oswald was the uncredited second-unit director of The Longest Day (1962) responsible for staging the parachute drop scenes into Sainte-Mère-Église, France on D-Day, during the Normandy landings of World War II.

Oswald died of cancer in Los Angeles, California at the age of 69.

References

    Further reading

    • Parsons, Louella (November 15, 1970). "Pola Negri to Return to Germany". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p.:10
    • "Para. Camera Winners". The Hollywood Reporter. June 24, 1949. p.:2. ProQuest:2322735234.
    • "A New Star in the TV Heavens: Last-minute coaching". Ebony. January 1967. p.:74
    • "Gerd Oswald Forms Own Company". Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. June 7, 1969. p.:10

    External links

    • Gerd Oswald at IMDb
    • Gerd Oswald at Memory Alpha