Gene Reynolds, TV hitmaker who co-created 'MASH', dies at 96 - The Columbian

LOS ANGELES — Gene Reynolds, an adventuresome Hollywood director and writer who brought the absurdities of warfare into America’s living rooms with “MASH” and used the tough inner-city schools of Los Angeles as a blueprint for “Room 222,” has died at 96.

A child star who became more intrigued with the other side of the camera as he grew older, Reynolds died Monday of heart failure at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, the Directors Guild of America confirmed.

During a long career, the director also turned to the Los Angeles Times, and particularly the city desk, when he was fleshing out early episodes of “Lou Grant,” the popular prime-time drama in which Ed Asner — as the gruff yet ultimately kind-hearted city editor — prowls the newsroom at the fictional Los Angeles Tribune.

Reynolds told the Times that television had long depicted newspapers in a simplistic fashion — editors and executives cowering from their readers while reporters sleuthed their way through the city, more private eyes than actual journalists. Reynolds said he sought to show that the heart and soul of the newspaper was its newsroom, the final waiting room for a thousand different stories.

“Lou Grant,” like “MASH” and “Room 222,” had to overcome critics, poor ratings and nervous network executives to survive. Each, though, became a runaway hit, with the final episode of “MASH” drawing the single largest audience for an episode in a prime-time series. And Reynolds won Emmy awards for all three.

Eugene Reynolds Blumenthal was born April 4, 1923, in Cleveland. His father was a struggling businessman, his mother a model. The family moved to Detroit and finally Los Angeles as his father sought work. Reynolds broke into acting as an extra on “Our Gang” comedy short films and studied drama at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Reynolds was contracted when he was only 14 by Metro-Goldwin Mayer to play the younger version of lead actors in a long list of films, often in flashback scenes — Don Ameche as a boy in “Sins of Man,” a young Jimmy Stewart in “Of Human Hearts” and a pint-sized Robert Taylor in “The Crowd Roars.” Convinced his career would never fully blossom, he joined the U.S. Navy during the height of World War II.

When he was discharged, he turned to directing, working on “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “My Three Sons” and “Hogan’s Heroes,” which he told the Times underscored his mounting concern that there was nothing — even life in wartime — that network television couldn’t trivialize.

He is survived by his wife, Ann, and a son, Andrew.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

"TV" - Google News
February 08, 2020 at 12:59PM
https://ift.tt/31BDfYu

Gene Reynolds, TV hitmaker who co-created 'MASH', dies at 96 - The Columbian
"TV" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2T73uUP
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update

Bagikan Berita Ini