Quick Facts
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Ted Post (March 31, 1918 – August 20, 2013) was an American director of film and television. Highly prolific, Post directed numerous episodes of well-known television series including Rawhide, Gunsmoke, and The Twilight Zone as well as blockbuster films such as Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Magnum Force.
Biography
Early life and career
Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Post started his career in 1938 working as an usher at Loew's Pitkin Theater. He abandoned plans to become an actor after training with Tamara Daykarhanova, and turned to directing summer theatre. Post taught acting and drama at New York's High School of Performing Arts in 1950. He persuaded his friend Sidney Lumet to do likewise.
Television series
Success in the theater led to work in television from the early 1950s. Post directed episodes of many series, including Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, Wagon Train, Rawhide, The Twilight Zone, Combat!, Columbo and 178 episodes of Peyton Place. He also directed TV films (including the original Cagney & Lacey film-of-the-week).
Films
He also directed feature films, including Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Go Tell the Spartans, and two Clint Eastwood films, Hang 'Em High and Magnum Force.
Post directed the 2001–02 Festival of the Arts at the University of Judaism (now the American Jewish University).
Death
Post died at the UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, California on August 20, 2013.
Selected filmography
Film
- The Peacemaker (1956)
- The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959)
- Hang 'Em High (1968)
- Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
- Magnum Force (1973)
- The Harrad Experiment (1973)
- The Baby (1973)
- Whiffs (1975)
- Good Guys Wear Black (1978)
- Go Tell the Spartans (1978)
- Nightkill (1980)
- The Human Shield (1991)
TV movies
- Dr. Cook's Garden (1970)
- Night Slaves (1970)
- Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate (1971)
- Yuma (1971)
- The Girls in the Office (1979)
- Cagney & Lacey (1981)
- Stagecoach (1986)
Television
- Armstrong Circle Theatre (1952)
- The Ford Television Theatre (1953)
- Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1953)
- Gunsmoke (1955)
- Medic (1955)
- Zane Grey Theatre (1956)
- Screen Directors Playhouse (1956)
- The 20th Century Fox Hour (1956)
- Perry Mason (1957)
- Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957)
- West Point (1957)
- Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958)
- The Rifleman (1958)
- Law of the Plainsman (1959)
- The Westerner (1960)
- Checkmate (1960)
- Startime (1960) (The Young Juggler)
- Wagon Train (1960)
- Insight (1960)
- Alcoa Premiere (1961)
- The Defenders (1961)
- Route 66 (1961)
- The Virginian (1962)
- Combat! (1962)
- Empire (1962)
- Thriller (1961–1962)
- General Electric Theater (1962)
- Bus Stop (1962)
- Rawhide (1960–1962)
- Peyton Place (1964)
- The Twilight Zone (1960–1964)
- Bracken's World (1969)
- Monty Nash (1971)
- Baretta (1975)
- Ark II (1976)
- Columbo (1976)
- Future Cop (1977)
- Beyond Westworld (1980)
- B.A.D. Cats (1980)