Joseph Pevney was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 film and television director.

Biography

Pevney was born on September 15, 1911 in New York City, New York.

He made his debut in vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 as a boy soprano in 1924. Although he hated vaudeville, he loved the theatre and developed a career as a stage actor, appearing in such plays as Home of the Brave, The World We Make, Key Largo, Golden Boy and Nature Son. A short career as a film actor followed, his most notable appearance being in the classic 1947 boxing film Body and Soul

Body and Soul (1947 film)

Body and Soul is a 1947 film noir which tells the story of a boxer who becomes involved with crooked promoters. It stars John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Hazel Brooks, Anne Revere and William Conrad....

, in which he played the role of Shorty Pulaski.

Subsequently Pevney became a prolific film

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 and television director

Television director

A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...

, with a directing career that spanned over 80 productions from 1950

1950 in film

The year 1950 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 15 - Walt Disney Studios' animated film Cinderella debuts.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:*Ambush...

 to 1984

1984 in film

-Events:* The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name.* Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film....

. Among those were films including Female on the Beach

Female on the Beach

Female on the Beach is a Universal-International feature film starring Joan Crawford and Jeff Chandler in a story about a widow and her beach bum lover. The screenplay by Robert Hill and Richard Alan Simmons was based on the play The Besieged Heart by Robert Hill...

(1955) with Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

 and Jeff Chandler

Jeff Chandler (actor)

Jeff Chandler was an American film actor and singer in the 1950s.-Early life:Chandler was born Ira Grossel to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Anna and Phillip Grossel. He attended Erasmus Hall High School, the alma mater of many stage and film personalities...

, Tammy and the Bachelor

Tammy and the Bachelor

Tammy and the Bachelor is a 1957 romantic comedy film and is the first of the four Tammy films. It stars Debbie Reynolds as Tambrey "Tammy" Tyree, Walter Brennan as Grandpa Dinwitty and Leslie Nielsen as Peter Brent...

(1957) with Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds is an American actress, singer, and dancer.She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave her a small, but significant part in the film Three Little Words , then signed her to...

 and Leslie Nielsen

Leslie Nielsen

Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...

, the James Cagney

James Cagney

James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...

 vehicle Man of a Thousand Faces

Man of a Thousand Faces

Man of a Thousand Faces is a film detailing the life of silent movie actor Lon Chaney, in which the title role is played by James Cagney.Directed by Joseph Pevney, the film's cast included Dorothy Malone, Jane Greer and Jim Backus...

(1957), The Crowded Sky (1960), and Westerns

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 such as The Plunderers (1960).

Pevney also helmed multiple episodes of noted television series, including Bonanza

Bonanza

Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...

, Star Trek

Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...

, The Paper Chase

The Paper Chase (TV series)

The Paper Chase is a television series based on a 1970 novel by John Jay Osborn, Jr., as well as a 1973 film based on the novel. It follows the lives of law student James T. Hart and his classmates at Harvard Law School.-Production:...

, and Trapper John, M.D.

Trapper John, M.D.

Trapper John, M.D. is an American television medical drama and spin-off of the film MASH, concerning a lovable surgeon who became a mentor and father figure in San Francisco, California. The show ran on CBS from September 23, 1979, to September 4, 1986....

. He tied with Marc Daniels

Marc Daniels

Marc Daniels , born Danny Marcus, was an American television director.-Life and Career:After serving in World War II, Daniels was hired by CBS to direct its first dramatic anthology program, Ford Theater. He mastered live television directing, and was hired to direct the first 38 episodes of I...

 for directing the greatest number of original Star Trek episodes, including such fan favorites as "The Devil in the Dark, "Arena", "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Amok Time", and "The Trouble With Tribbles". Star Trek NBC executive Herb Solow and executive co-producer Robert Justman write, in their 1996 book Star Trek The Real Story, of Pevney:
Pevney died on May 18, 2008 in Palm Desert, California

Palm Desert, California

Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census, up from 41,155 at the 2000 census...

 at age 96.

External links