George Sidney (October 4, 1916 - May 5, 2002) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film director and film producer who worked primarily at
Metro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., or MGM, is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B...
.
Born in Long Island City, New York, Sidney began his career as an assistant at MGM until being assigned to direct the
Our GangOur Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, Our Gang was produced at the Roach studio starting in 1922 as a...
comedies, which MGM had just acquired from
Hal RoachHarold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...
, in 1938. Sidney, then age 21, was the youngest
Our Gang senior director ever, and was only nine years older than the eldest
Our Gang kid, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer's brother Harold.
After a year of working on
Our Gang shorts, Sidney moved on to the
Crime Does Not Pay series and popular
Pete SmithPete Smith was a film producer and narrator of "short subject" films from 1931 to 1955....
specialties.
George Sidney (October 4, 1916 - May 5, 2002) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film director and film producer who worked primarily at
Metro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., or MGM, is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B...
.
Career
Born in Long Island City, New York, Sidney began his career as an assistant at MGM until being assigned to direct the
Our GangOur Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, Our Gang was produced at the Roach studio starting in 1922 as a...
comedies, which MGM had just acquired from
Hal RoachHarold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...
, in 1938. Sidney, then age 21, was the youngest
Our Gang senior director ever, and was only nine years older than the eldest
Our Gang kid, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer's brother Harold.
After a year of working on
Our Gang shorts, Sidney moved on to the
Crime Does Not Pay series and popular
Pete SmithPete Smith was a film producer and narrator of "short subject" films from 1931 to 1955....
specialties. He soon graduated to features, including
The Harvey GirlsThe Harvey Girls is a MGM musical film based on a 1942 novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams about Fred Harvey's famous Harvey House restaurants. Directed by George Sidney, the film stars Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Angela Lansbury, Virginia O'Brien, Ray Bolger, and Marjorie Main...
(1946),
The Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers is a Technicolor adventure film adaptation of the classic novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père. It starred Gene Kelly, Van Heflin, June Allyson, Vincent Price, Angela Lansbury, and Lana Turner.-Plot:...
(1948),
Annie Get Your GunAnnie Get Your Gun is a 1950 American musical film loosely based on the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley. The Metro Goldwyn Mayer release, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and a screenplay by Sidney Sheldon based on the 1946 stage musical of the same name, was directed by George Sidney...
(1950),
The Red DanubeThe Red Danube is a 1949 drama film directed by George Sidney and starring Walter Pidgeon. It was nominated an Academy Award for Best Art Direction ....
(1950),
Kiss Me, KateKiss Me Kate is the 1953 MGM film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name.Inspired by The Taming of the Shrew, it tells the tale of two once-married, now-divorced musical theater actors, Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, who are performing opposite each other in the roles of Petruchio and...
(1953),
Jupiter's DarlingJupiter's Darling is an MGM film, starring Esther Williams and Howard Keel. In this film, Williams helps Hannibal swim the Tiber River to take a closer look at Rome's fortifications...
(1955),
The Eddy Duchin StoryThe Eddy Duchin Story is a 1956 biopic of band leader and pianist Eddy Duchin. It was directed by George Sidney-helmed film, written by Samuel A. Taylor, and starred Tyrone Power and Kim Novak. The musical soundtrack recording, imitating Duchin's style, was performed by pianist Carmen Cavallaro....
(1956),
Pal JoeyPal Joey is a 1957 film, loosely adapted from the musical play of the same name; it stars Rita Hayworth , Frank Sinatra, and Kim Novak. Kim Novak's singing voice was dubbed by Trudy Erwin. The director is George Sidney and the choreographer is Hermes Pan...
(1957),
Jeanne EagelsJeanne Eagels is a 1957 fictionalised biographical film of the life of stage star Jeanne Eagels, made by Columbia Pictures. It was produced and directed by George Sidney from a screenplay by John Fante, Daniel Fuchs and Sonya Levien, based on a story by Fuchs...
(1957),
Bye Bye BirdieThe stage musical Bye Bye Birdie was first adapted to film in 1963. The screenplay was written by Michael Stewart and Irving Brecher, with music by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams. It was directed by George Sidney and starred Dick Van Dyke as Albert Peterson, Maureen Stapleton as Mama Mae Peterson,...
(1963), and
Elvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as Elvis and is also sometimes referred to as The King of Rock 'n' Roll or The King....
's
Viva Las VegasViva Las Vegas is an American romantic musical motion picture co-starring Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret.The movie is regarded by fans as one of Presley's best and is noted for the on-screen chemistry between Presley and Ann-Margret, plus 10 musical numbers.-Reaction:Some critics in 1964 did...
(1964). His last film was
Half a SixpenceHalf a Sixpence is a 1967 British musical film directed by George Sidney. The screenplay by Beverley Cross is adapted from his book for the stage musical of the same name, which was based on Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul, a 1905 novel by H.G. Wells...
(1967).
Sidney had helped MGM colleagues
William HannaWilliam Denby "Bill" Hanna was an American animator, director, producer, television director, television producer, and cartoon artist, whose movie and television cartoon characters entertained millions of fans worldwide for much of the twentieth century...
and
Joseph BarberaJoseph Roland "Joe" Barbera ; was an influential American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist, whose movie and television cartoon characters entertained millions of fans worldwide for much of the twentieth century...
bankroll their side company Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1944 and was associated with them for ten years. Hanna and Barbera's
Jerry MouseTom and Jerry is a series of animated theatrical shorts created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that centered on a never-ending rivalry between a housecat and a mouse whose chases and battles often involved comic violence...
appeared alongside
Gene KellyEugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer....
in Sidney's film
Anchors AweighAnchors Aweigh is a 1945 musical comedy live-action/animated film, directed by George Sidney in which two sailors go on a four-day shore leave in Hollywood, accompanied by music and song, meet an aspiring young singer and try to help her get an audition at MGM...
(1945); he later featured
Fred FlintstoneFrederick Joseph "Fred" Flintstone is a fictional character who originated in the animated sitcom The Flintstones on ABC. He is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles Flintstone...
and
Huckleberry HoundHanna-Barbera's second series, made specifically for television, The Huckleberry Hound Show was a 1958 syndicated animated series, sponsored by Kellogg's. Three segments were included in the program: one featuring Huckleberry Hound; Yogi Bear and his sidekick Boo Boo; and Pixie and Dixie, two mice...
in
Bye Bye Birdie, when the animators had moved to
Screen GemsScreen Gems is an American subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation.-Animation studio: 1940–1946:...
, the television division of
Columbia PicturesColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
.
Sidney was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award four times, starting with the lush
TechnicolorTechnicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood...
remake of
Show BoatShow Boat is a 1951 film based on the musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II and the novel by Edna Ferber....
. In 1958 he was presented with a
Golden Globe AwardThe Golden Globe Awards are presented annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to recognize outstanding achievements in the entertainment industry, both domestic and foreign, and to focus wide public attention upon the best in motion pictures and television...
for Best World Entertainment Through Musical Films. For his work in the art of
cinemaFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
, he was awarded a star on the
Hollywood Walk of FameThe Hollywood Walk of Fame is a sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, that serves as an entertainment museum...
. He died of complications from
lymphomaLymphoma is a cancer that begins in the lymphocytes of the immune system and presents as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. They often originate like balls in lymph nodes, presenting as an enlargement of the node...
in
Las Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada, the seat of Clark County, and an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, fine dining, and entertainment. Las Vegas, which bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for the number of...
at the age of 85. He was interred at
Hillside Memorial Park CemeteryThe Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary is located at 6001 W. Centinela Avenue, in Culver City, California, USA. A number of prominent individuals of the Jewish faith, including a number from the entertainment industry, are buried or entombed here, such as:...
.
Motion picture actor George Sidney (1876-1945, born Samuel Greenfield) was his uncle.
Awards and nominations
| Year | Group | Award | Film | Result |
|---|
| 1952 |
Directors Guild of AmericaDirectors Guild of America is the labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
|
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures |
Show Boat Show Boat is a 1951 film based on the musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II and the novel by Edna Ferber....
|
Nominated |
| 1953 |
Directors Guild of America |
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures |
Scaramouche Scaramouche is a 1952 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer romantic adventure film based on the 1921 novel Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini as well as the 1923 film version starring Ramón Novarro. The film stars Stewart Granger, Eleanor Parker, Janet Leigh, and Mel Ferrer. It was directed by George Sidney and...
|
Nominated |
| 1954 |
Directors Guild of America |
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures |
Young BessYoung Bess is a 1953 biographical film made by MGM about the early career of Queen Elizabeth I of England, focusing primarily on her romance with Thomas Seymour. The film starred Jean Simmons and Stewart Granger, with Charles Laughton as Henry VIII, a part he had played twenty years before in The...
|
Nominated |
| 1957 |
Directors Guild of America |
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures |
The Eddy Duchin Story The Eddy Duchin Story is a 1956 biopic of band leader and pianist Eddy Duchin. It was directed by George Sidney-helmed film, written by Samuel A. Taylor, and starred Tyrone Power and Kim Novak. The musical soundtrack recording, imitating Duchin's style, was performed by pianist Carmen Cavallaro....
|
Nominated |
| 1959 |
Directors Guild of America |
DGA Honorary Life Member Award |
- |
Won |
| 1986 |
Directors Guild of America |
Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award |
- |
Won |
| 1998 |
Directors Guild of America |
President's Award |
- |
Won |
| 1995 |
Golden Apple Award The Golden Apple Award is an American award presented to entertainers by the Hollywood Women's Press Club, usually in recognition not of performance but of behavior. The award has been presented since 1941 and includes categories recognizing actors for being easy to work with, as well as categories...
|
Louella Parsons Award |
- |
Won |
| 1958 |
Golden Globe AwardThe Golden Globe Awards are presented annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to recognize outstanding achievements in the entertainment industry, both domestic and foreign, and to focus wide public attention upon the best in motion pictures and television...
|
Best World Entertainment Through Musical Films |
- |
Won |
| 1993 |
San Luis Obispo International Film Festival |
King Vidor Memorial Award |
- |
Won |
External links