Buzz Kulik

Seymour Buzz Kulik July 23 1922 January 13 1999 was an American film director and producer He directed 72 films and television shows including the landmark CBS television network anthology series Playhouse 90 and several episodes of The Twilight Zone Kulik went on to direct madeforTV movies such as Brians Song After leaving the army as a first lieutenant after World War II Kulik went to work in the mail room at J Walter Thompson Advertising Agency in New York He eventually saw a notice at work that they were looking for people to direct programs for a new medium called television and Kulik responded A lifelong baseball fan he started directing the cameras at Yankee Stadium before starting a career directing live television programming such as Playhouse 90 and Lux Video Theater He moved to Los Angeles in 1953 and eventually began directing some of the landmark series of the 1950s and 1960s including Perry Mason Gunsmoke Have Gun Will Travel Wagon Train Rawhide Dr Kildare and The Defenders for which he directed the pilot episode He directed a dozen episodes of Twilight Zone which brought him lasting fame and recognition among the legion of fans who religiously watch the Twilight Zone marathons that continue to air on holidays to this day Kulik also began directing feature films in the 1960s including Explosive Generation with William Shatner Warning Shot with David Jansen Villa Rides with Robert Mitchum Yul Brynner and Charles Bronson and Riot with Gene Hackman and Jim Brown He directed the first television miniseries Vanished with Richard Widmark and James Farentino In 1971 he directed what many critics and fans feel is the greatest television film ever made Brians Song for which he received Best Director honors from the Directors Guild of America For several years in a row the lead actors in the films he directed won Best Actor of the year including Peter Ustinov for A Storm in Summer James Caan for Brians Song Alan Alda for Kill Me if You Can Susan Clark for Babe and Anthony Hopkins for The Lindbergh Kidnapping Some of the prominent longform mini series he directed were From Here to Eternity with Natalie Wood and William Devane Around the World in 80 Days with Pierce Brosnin and Peter Ustinov and Kane and Abel with Peter Strauss In the 1970s and 1980s he also directed feature films including To Find a Man Shamus with Burt Reynolds and The Hunter with Steve McQueen Over the course of a career that lasted more than 40 years Buzz Kulik established himself and is remembered today as one of the greatest television directors of all time