Birthday:
Birthday:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Thomas S. "Tom" Gries (20 December 1922; Chicago, Illinois – 3 January 1977; Pacific Palisades, California) was an American TV and film director, writer and producer. Educated at the Loyola Academy and Georgetown University, Gries began working in TV in the 1950s as a writer and director, on such programmes as Bronco,"Rat Patrol", Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Westerner, The Rifleman, East Side/West Side, Mission: Impossible, Route 66, Batman and I Spy. He won Emmy Awards for his direction on East Side/West Side in 1964 and The Glass House in 1972. In the cinema, Gries directed some low-budget movies in the 1950s before concentrating his efforts more on TV. In the late 1960s, he wrote and directed what is generally acknowledged to be his greatest work in either medium, the western Will Penny, which starred Charlton Heston and was released in 1968. It was based on an episode of the TV series The Westerner that Gries wrote and directed in 1960, entitled "Line Camp". Gries subsequently made two other films with Heston, the much less successful Number One, and The Hawaiians, and directed several other films with other high profile actors such as Burt Reynolds and Charles Bronson into the 1970s, though they failed to reach the critical approval that Will Penny received. The most successful of his later works was Helter Skelter, made in 1976, which was a TV film based on the notorious Charles Manson Family. During post-production on his final film, The Greatest (1977), a biography on boxer Muhammed Ali (in which Ali also played himself), Tom Gries collapsed and died of a heart attack while playing tennis. He was 54 years old. He is the father of actor/director Jon Gries (who appeared under the name Jon Francis in Will Penny as a child actor). Description above from the Wikipedia article Tom Gries, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Birthday: December 20, 1922
Death: January 03, 1977

December 19, 1967

March 26, 1972

December 09, 1975

May 01, 1975

March 26, 1969

September 30, 1953

April 01, 1976

May 17, 1977

June 17, 1970

August 21, 1969

November 28, 1971

February 27, 1973

January 01, 1954

December 23, 1970

February 04, 1972

February 03, 1974

December 31, 1955

July 13, 1973

October 24, 1952

March 02, 1972

July 17, 1955

December 07, 1951

March 14, 1959

June 01, 1958

February 27, 1973

May 22, 1974

January 01, 1956

September 22, 1964

September 14, 1964

September 19, 1961

September 30, 1960

September 07, 1966

September 12, 1959

September 17, 1960

October 07, 1960

October 02, 1962

September 12, 1966

September 23, 1963

September 17, 1966

January 12, 1966

September 16, 1961

September 30, 1957

July 01, 1957

October 04, 1963

October 05, 1959

September 23, 1958

April 09, 1955

October 10, 1963

September 15, 1965

September 06, 1958

September 30, 1958

September 28, 1959

September 12, 1966

October 05, 1956

September 17, 1965

October 16, 1957

October 02, 1959

October 01, 1962

October 16, 1959

September 25, 1964

September 06, 1966

April 29, 1974

September 25, 1956

October 04, 1957

January 17, 1955

September 09, 1960

March 05, 1952

January 31, 1965

September 19, 1960

April 01, 1976