Delbert Martin Mann Jr. (January 30, 1920 – November 11, 2007) was an American television and film director. He won the

Academy Award for Best Director The Academy Award for Best Director (officially known as the Academy Award of Merit for Directing) is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given in honor of a film director who has exhibi ...

for the film '' Marty'' (1955), adapted from a 1953 teleplay of the same name which he had also directed. From 1967 to 1971, he was president of the

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film director, film and television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dire ...

. In 2002, he received the DGA's honorary life member award. Mann was credited to have "helped bring TV techniques to the film world."

Early life and education

Delbert Martin Mann Jr. was born on January 30, 1920, in

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas River, Kansas and Waka ...

, to Delbert Mann Sr. and Ora (Patton) Mann (died 1961). His father taught sociology at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

from 1920 to 1926. In 1926, the Manns left Lawrence and moved to

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and then

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

before finally settling in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and th ...

in 1931.George R. Zepp
''Hidden History of Nashville''
The History Press, 2009 page 77 There, his father continued to teach sociology at the Scarritt College for Christian Workers. His mother was also a schoolteacher. Mann was head of his high school drama club when he met

Fred Coe Frederick Hayden Hughs Coe (December 23, 1914 – April 29, 1979) was an American television producer and director most famous for '' The Goodyear Television Playhouse''/''The Philco Television Playhouse'' in 1948-1955 and '' Playhouse 90'' from ...

, the future television producer and director, who was leading a church-sponsored acting society. Coe would later figure prominently in Mann's career as a director. Coe would also serve as Mann's mentor. Mann studied political science in

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

. He graduated there in 1941 with a bachelor's degree on political science. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Mann served with the Army Air Corps as a B-24 bomber pilot and then as an intelligence officer with the

8th Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces ...

stationed in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Mann also attended the

Yale School of Drama The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is a graduate professional school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1924 as the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts, the school provides training in e ...

, where he earned a master's fine arts degree in directing.

Career

Television

Mann took a directing job at the

Town Theatre Town Theatre is a historic community theatre located at Columbia, South Carolina. It was built in 1924, and is a rectangular brick building with a two-story glazed central arch with Art Deco influences. A brick annex was added to the rear of the ...

, a community playhouse in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the cit ...

. Mann was affiliated with the Town Theatre from 1947 to 1949, before moving to New York to work with Coe in television. In 1949, at Coe's invitation, Mann joined him in New York, where he became a stage manager and assistant director at

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

. Within months, he became an alternating director of the anthology series, ''

The Philco Television Playhouse ''The Philco Television Playhouse'' is an American television anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golde ...

''. Between 1949 and 1955, Mann directed more than 100 live television dramas. But even after turning to films, he returned to television and directed productions for ''

Playhouse 90 ''Playhouse 90'' was an American television anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. The show was produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology drama series of th ...

'', '' Ford Star Jubilee'' and other dramatic television anthology series. He also directed more than two dozen films for television from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, including ''

Heidi ''Heidi'' (; ) is a work of children's fiction published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as ''Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning'' (german: Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre) and ''Heidi: How She Use ...

'' (1968), ''

David Copperfield ''David Copperfield'' Dickens invented over 14 variations of the title for this work, see is a novel in the bildungsroman genre by Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from inf ...

'' (1969), ''

Jane Eyre ''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first ...

'' (1970) and ''

All Quiet on the Western Front ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (german: Im Westen nichts Neues, lit=Nothing New in the West) is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental trauma du ...

'' (1979).

Film

In addition to ''Marty'' (1955), other films directed by Mann include '' The Bachelor Party'' (1957), ''

Desire Under the Elms ''Desire Under the Elms'' is a 1924 play written by Eugene O'Neill. Like ''Mourning Becomes Electra'', ''Desire Under the Elms'' signifies an attempt by O'Neill to adapt plot elements and themes of Greek tragedy to a rural New England setting. ...

'' (1958), ''

Separate Tables ''Separate Tables'' is the collective name of two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan, both taking place in the Beauregard Private Hotel, Bournemouth, on the south coast of England. The first play, titled ''Table by the Window'', focuses on the ...

'' (1958), ''

Middle of the Night ''Middle of the Night'' is a 1959 American drama film directed by Delbert Mann, and released by Columbia Pictures.''Variety'' film review; May 20, 1959, page 6.''Harrison's Reports'' film review; May 23, 1959, page 82. It was entered into the ...

'' (1959), '' The Dark at the Top of the Stairs'' (1960), '' The Outsider'' (1961), ''

That Touch of Mink ''That Touch of Mink'' is a 1962 American romantic comedy film directed by Delbert Mann and starring Cary Grant, Doris Day, Gig Young, and Audrey Meadows. Plot Cathy Timberlake, an unemployed New York City career woman, goes to the unemploymen ...

'' (1962), ''

A Gathering of Eagles ''A Gathering of Eagles'' is a 1963 SuperScope Eastmancolor film about the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War and the pressures of command. The plot is patterned after the World War II film ''Twelve O'Clock High'', which producer-screenwrite ...

'' (1963), '' Dear Heart'' (1964), ''

Fitzwilly ''Fitzwilly'' is a 1967 American romantic comedy film directed by Delbert Mann, based on Poyntz Tyler's 1960 novel ''A Garden of Cucumbers'' (the title refers tIsaiah 1:8 and adapted for the screen by Isobel Lennart. Its title refers to the nic ...

'' (1967), ''

Kidnapped Kidnapped may refer to: * subject to the crime of kidnapping Literature * ''Kidnapped'' (novel), an 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson * ''Kidnapped'' (comics), a 2007 graphic novel adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's novel by Alan Grant and Cam ...

'' (1971) and ''

Night Crossing ''Night Crossing'' is a 1982 British-American drama film starring John Hurt, Jane Alexander and Beau Bridges. The film is based on the true story of the Strelzyk and Wetzel families, who on September 16, 1979, attempted to escape from East Germa ...

'' (1982).

Personal life and death

Mann was married to Ann Caroline Gillespie from 1942 until her death by

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As ...

in 2001. They had four children: Fred, David, Steven and Susan. Susan died in a car accident in 1976. During the 1980s and 1990s, Mann served on the advisory board of the

National Student Film Institute The National Student Film Institute (NSFI), formerly the Los Angeles Student Film Institute (LASFI), was founded in 1978 by Brenda Norman, Dave Master, Jutti Marsh and Ralph Rogers as a festival for films made by children from kindergarten through n ...

. He also served as honorary chairman of the institute for a one-year term. On November 11, 2007, Mann died of pneumonia at the

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over ...

in Los Angeles, at age 87.

Filmography

*'' Marty'' (1955) *'' The Bachelor Party'' (1957) *''

'' (1958) *''

'' (1959) *'' The Dark at the Top of the Stairs'' (1960) *'' Lover Come Back'' (1961) *'' The Outsider'' (1961) *''

'' (1962) *''

'' (1963) *'' Dear Heart'' (1964) *'' Quick, Before It Melts'' (1964) *''

Mister Buddwing ''Mister Buddwing'' is a 1966 American film drama directed by Delbert Mann and starring James Garner. The film depicts a well-dressed man who finds himself on a bench in Central Park with no idea who he is. He proceeds to wander around Manhatta ...

'' (1966) *''

'' (1967) *''

The Pink Jungle ''The Pink Jungle'' is a 1968 American adventure comedy film directed by Delbert Mann starring James Garner, Eva Renzi, George Kennedy and Nigel Green. "I made this thing for the money and I'm lucky it didn't wreck my career," Garner wrote in h ...

'' (1968) *''

'' (TV adaptation, 1968) *''

'' (1969) *''

'' (TV adaptation, 1970) *''

'' (1971) *'' No Place to Run'' (1972 TV movie) *''

The Man Without a Country "The Man Without a Country" is a short story by American writer Edward Everett Hale, first published in ''The Atlantic'' in December 1863. It is the story of American Army lieutenant Philip Nolan, who renounces his country during a trial for t ...

'' (TV adaptation, 1973) *'' Birch Interval'' (1976) *''

'' (TV adaptation, 1979) *''

'' (1982) *'' The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story'' (1983 TV movie) *'' Love Leads The Way'' (1984

Disney Channel original film Many television films have been produced for Disney Channel, an American family-oriented basic cable channel and former premium television channel since its launch on April 18, 1983. Until October 1997, films were released under the banner n ...

) *''

The Last Days of Patton ''The Last Days of Patton'' is a 1986 American made-for-television biographical drama film and sequel to the 1970 film ''Patton'', which portrays the last few months of the general's life. George C. Scott reprises the role of General George S ...

'' (1986 made-for-television movie) *'' Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore'' (1992 made-for-television movie) *''

Incident in a Small Town ''Incident in a Small Town'' is a 1994 American made-for-television drama film directed by Delbert Mann, and starring Walter Matthau, Harry Morgan and Stephanie Zimbalist. This is the third and final film featuring the characters Harmon Cobb ...

'' (1994 made-for-television movie) *''Lily in Winter'' (1994 TV movie)

References

External links

*
Hollywood Reporter: Director Delbert Mann dies at 87Archive of American Television Interview With Delbert Mann
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Delbert 1920 births 2007 deaths Presidents of the Directors Guild of America Best Directing Academy Award winners Deaths from pneumonia in California People from Lawrence, Kansas Directors Guild of America Award winners Vanderbilt University alumni United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II Yale School of Drama alumni Yale University alumni Directors of Palme d'Or winners Film directors from Kansas United States Army Air Forces officers