User:Olpf/Stanley Colbert

Stanley Colbert
Stanley Landau Colbert. Born: October 18, 1927, Greenwich Village, New York; Died: [[September 21, 2010]], Toronto, Canada, from heart and kidney failure,.

Married: Nancy Samuels.
Children: David, Melanie.

Attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, focusing on journalism. He enlisted in WWII, and then returned to UNC to finish his degree.

Movie/Television Career

Colbert's many movie/television accomplishments include being the production supervisor for "[[Flipper (1964 TV series)]]." He was the executive producer of: Murder by Phone (1982), The Phoenix Team (1980 TV series), Coming Out Alive (1980), Crossbar (1979, TV movie), Riel (film) (1979 TV movie), The Albertans (1979 TV movie), The Fighting Men (1977 TV movie), Our Man Flint: Dead on Target (1976 TV movie), Sidestreet (1975 TV series, 1 episode: Once a Hero), and the executive producer in charge of production of Gentle Giant (1967). Gentle Giant was the basis for the television series ''Gentle Ben''.

Colbert was the producer of One Night Stand (1978 TV movie), ''Birds Do It'' (1966), The ''Greatest Show on Earth'' (TV series) (1963 TV series, 2 episodes: No Middle Ground for Harry Kyle and Silent Love, Secret Love), Ripcord (TV series) (1961-1963 TV series, 4 episodes: The Last Chapter (1963), Sentence of Death (1962), The Sky Diver (1961), Crime Jump (1961)), ''The Explosive Generation'' (1961), and Private Property (1960). For many of these, he worked with Ivan Tors.

Colbert wrote the screen story for Hornets' Nest (1970), a war film starring Rock Hudson who uses Italian children to blow up a dam under the control of the Nazis. And in 1985, he was acknowledged for his contributions to [[Anne of Green Gables (1985 film)]] (TV movie) (grateful acknowledgment).

From 1976 to 1984, Colbert worked with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. For a while, he was CBC's executive producer for film drama before moving to lighter entertainment. One of his CBC projects was a collaboration with Jim Henson and his Muppets' team on a kids' TV show called ''Fraggle Rock''. Both Colbert and Henson shared an International Emmy Award for it. HBO brought the series to the United States. Other individuals he worked with while at CBC were Richard Benner (''Outrageous!''), Ian Sutherland (Rituals), and Pat Watson (Who Has Seen the Wind). Colbert was also responsible for packaging ''The Magnificent Seven''.

Author/Publishing Career

After the CBC, Colbert went back into the agency business, this time working for his wife, Nancy. One notable book-to-movie deal was for ''Field of Dreams''.

Colbert wrote short stories that were published in ''Esquire (magazine)''. While working for Aviation Week (now known as ''Aviation Week & Space Technology'', Colbert broke the story that a test pilot, Chuck Yeager had actually broken the sound barrier.

In the early 1950s, he joined the Sterling Lord Agency in New York City. One of his most-notable clients was Jack Kerouac. Kerouac had been referred to Colbert by publisher Robert Giroux.

Colbert stated in a 1999 interview with Wilmington, North Carolina's Star-News newspaper, that

he had never seen the famous 120-foot scroll of paper that Kerouac allegedly used to type the first draft of ''On the Road'' in a three-week frenzy. Instead, "was a stack of paper about this high," he said in a 1999 Star-News interview, indicating a spot about four feet off the floor, "tied with a clothesline like your mother used to have." Much of the material was unintelligible, Colbert recalled. "Then, somewhere, that far down," he added, pointing about three feet up, "was a thing called ‘On the Road.' I read it and got caught up in the thing."

Colbert showed the manuscript to Malcolm Cowley of Viking Press. On the Road was subsequently published by Viking Press in 1957.

In later years, Colbert headed up the Canadian division of HarperCollins publishing house.

Teaching Career

Colbert taught at the University of North Carolina Wilmington in the Department of Creative Writing. Colbert, together with Philip Furia approached Frank Capra, Jr., then president of EUE Screen Gems Studios, to make the connection between UNCW and EUE Screen Gems. This was the start of their Film Studies Program, now a full department.

UNCW presented Colbert with an honorary doctorate of fine arts in 1999.

Chef

During the same time that Colbert was teaching at UNCW, he was also known for cooking meals for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.

References

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