Tom Gries

Tom Gries
Born	December 20, 1922 Chicago, Illinois
Died	January 3, 1977 (aged 54) Pacific Palisades, California
Occupation(s)	Director, writer, producer
Spouse	Mary Eleanor Munday
Children	Jon Gries (son) Muggsy Spanier (stepfather)

Tom Gries (December 20, 1922 – January 3, 1977) was an American TV and film director, writer, and film producer.

Life and career

Gries was born in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Ruth, later remarried to jazz musician Muggsy Spanier, who became stepfather to Ruth's sons. Tom Gries was educated at the Loyola Academy and Georgetown University.

Gries began working in TV in the 1950s as a writer and director. His work can be seen on such popular programs as Bronco, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Westerner, The Rifleman, Checkmate, Cain's Hundred, East Side/West Side, Route 66, Stoney Burke, Combat!, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Honey West, I Spy, Mission: Impossible, and Batman among many others. Gries won Emmy Awards for his direction on East Side/West Side in 1964 and The Glass House in 1972.

In the cinema, Gries both wrote and directed the adventure film Serpent Island (1954) starring Sonny Tufts, and the Korean War film Hell's Horizon (1955) starring John Ireland. Between television directing gigs, Gries helmed Girl in the Woods, a 1958 drama starring Forrest Tucker and Barton MacLane.

Gries both wrote the screenplay and directed the 1959 Jack Buetel western Mustang! before concentrating his efforts exclusively on television for almost a decade. In a triumphant return to cinema, Gries wrote and directed what is generally acknowledged to be his masterpiece in either medium, the 1968 western Will Penny, which starred Charlton Heston in the title role. It was based on an episode of the TV series The Westerner that Gries wrote and directed in 1960, entitled "Line Camp".

In 1966, Gries created the popular action-adventure series The Rat Patrol. Gries wrote and directed the pilot episode, "The Chase of Fire Raid." The 1966–68 series boasts 56 thirty-minute, color episodes produced over the span of its two-season run on ABC. The series focused on the oft-overlooked North African Campaign and episodes invariably pit the ragtag Rat Patrol — a four-man Allied force led by Christopher George as Sgt. Sam Troy — against the German Afrika Korps led by Captain Hans Dietrich, played by Eric Braeden (then still using his original name Hans Gudegast).

Gries subsequently made two other films with Heston: the 1969 gridiron drama Number One and the 1970 drama The Hawaiians, which was based on James Michener's sprawling 1959 novel, Hawaii (not to be confused with the 1966 film based on a section of the same book). In 1969, Gries co-wrote and directed Jim Brown, Burt Reynolds, and Raquel Welch in the controversial western 100 Rifles.

In the early 1970s Gries directed a variety of films, from the 1970 Jason Robards and Katharine Ross May–December romance drama Fools to the 1971 science-fiction telefilm Earth II starring Gary Lockwood and Anthony Franciosa. In 1973, Gries directed the crime-thriller Lady Ice, which starred Donald Sutherland, Jennifer O'Neill, Robert Duvall and Eric Braeden. Gries, who had directed Charles Bronson in a 1961 episode of Cain's Hundred ("Dead Weight: Dave Braddock"), helmed two back-to-back Bronson films in 1975: Breakout and Breakheart Pass.

Gries' 1970s work failed, however, to earn the critical acclaim that welcomed Will Penny. The most successful of his later projects was Helter Skelter, a 1976 TV movie based on Vincent Bugliosi's 1974 true-crime book detailing the crimes and trials of the notorious Charles Manson Family.

During post-production on his final film The Greatest (1977), a biography of boxer Muhammad Ali (in which Ali also played himself), Gries collapsed and died of a heart attack while playing tennis. He was 54 years old.

He is the father of actor and director Jon Gries (who appeared under the name Jon Francis in the film Will Penny as a child actor) and the brother of Buddy Charles a/k/a Charles Joseph Gries, who was a pop and jazz vocalist and pianist in Chicago.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer
1952	The Bushwhackers	No	Yes	No
1953	Donovan's Brain	No	No	Yes
1954	Hunters of the Deep (Documentary)	No	Yes	Yes
	Serpent Island	Yes	Yes	No
1955	King Dinosaur	No	Yes	No
	Hell's Horizon	Yes	Yes	No
1958	Girl in the Woods	Yes	No	No
1959	Mustang!	Yes	Yes	No
1968	Will Penny	Yes	Yes	No
1969	100 Rifles	Yes	Yes	No
	Number One	Yes	No	No
1970	The Hawaiians	Yes	No	No
	Fools	Yes	No	No
1971	Earth II	Yes	No	No
1972	Michael O'Hara the Fourth	No	Yes	Yes
	The Glass House	Yes	No	No
	Journey Through Rosebud	Yes	No	No
1973	The Connection	Yes	No	No
	Call to Danger	Yes	No	No
	Lady Ice	Yes	No	Yes
1974	The Migrants	Yes	No	Yes
	The Healers	Yes	No	No
1975	Breakout	Yes	No	No
	Breakheart Pass	Yes	No	No
1976	Helter Skelter	Yes	No	Yes
1977	The Greatest	Yes	No	No

Television

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Creator	Producer
1952	The Unexpected	No	Yes	No	No
1953	Boston Blackie	No	Yes	No	No
1955–1956	TV Reader's Digest	Yes	Yes	No	No
	Science Fiction Theatre	Yes	No	No	No
1956	Chevron Hall of Stars	Yes	No	No	No
	Sky King	No	Yes	No	No
	Science Fiction Theatre	No	Yes	No	No
	Cavalcade of America	Yes	No	No	No
1956-1957	Wire Service	Yes	No	No	No
1957	The Adventures of McGraw	Yes	No	No	No
	Alcoa Theatre	Yes	No	No	No
1957–1958	Richard Diamond, Private Detective	Yes	Yes	No	No
	The Court of Last Resort	Yes	No	No	No
1958	State Trooper	Yes	No	No	No
	Tombstone Territory	Yes	Yes	No	No
	Target	Yes	No	No	No
1959	Bronco	No	Yes	No	No
1959–1960	Johnny Ringo	Yes	Yes	No	No
	Wanted: Dead or Alive	No	Yes	No	No
1960	The Man and the Challenge	Yes	Yes	No	No
	The Westerner	Yes	Yes	No	No
	Lock Up	No	Yes	No	No
	The DuPont Show with June Allyson	No	Yes	No	No
	Zane Grey Theatre	Yes	No	No	No
	Bourbon Street Beat	No	Yes	No	No
1961	Dante	No	Yes	No	No
	The Rifleman	No	Yes	No	No
	The Barbara Stanwyck Show	No	Yes	No	No
	The Law and Mr Jones	Yes	No	No	No
	Adventures in Paradise	Yes	No	No	No
1961–1962	Checkmate	Yes	No	No	No
	Cain's Hundred	Yes	No	No	No
	The Detectives	Yes	No	No	No
1962	Death Valley Days	No	Yes	No	No
	The Third Man	No	Yes	No	No
1962–1963	Route 66	Yes	No	No	No
	Stoney Burke	Yes	No	No	No
1963	The Travels of Jamie McPheeters	Yes	No	No	No
1963-1964	East Side/West Side	Yes	No	No	No
1963-1965	Combat!	Yes	No	No	No
1964	The Reporter	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	The Defenders	Yes	No	No	No
	The Doctors and the Nurses	Yes	No	No	No
1965	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Yes	No	No	No
	For the People	Yes	No	No	No
	Kraft Suspense Theatre	Yes	No	No	No
	The Man from UNCLE	Yes	No	No	No
	The Trials of O'Brien	Yes	No	No	No
	Honey West	Yes	No	No	No
1966	Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea	Yes	No	No	No
	A Man Called Shenandoah	Yes	No	No	No
	Batman	Yes	No	No	No
	The Monroes	Yes	No	No	No
	Mission: Impossible	Yes	No	No	No
	The Felony Squad	Yes	No	No	No
	The Rounders	Yes	No	No	No
1966-1968	The Rat Patrol	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
1967	I Spy	Yes	No	No	No
	Garrison's Gorillas	Yes	No	No	No
1974	QB VII	Yes	No	No	No
1976	Hunter	Yes	No	No	Yes

Production supervisor

• Boston Blackie (1953)
• Your Favorite Story (1953)
• The Cisco Kid (1953)

External links

• Tom Gries at IMDb