Delbert Mann

Delbert Martin Mann Jr. (January 30, 1920 – November 11, 2007) was an American television and film director. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film Marty, adapted from a 1953 teleplay which he had also directed. From 1967 to 1971, he was president of the Directors Guild of America. In 2002, he received the DGA's honorary life member award.

Early life and education Delbert Martin Mann Jr. was born on January 30, 1920, in Lawrence, Kansas, to Delbert Mann Sr. and Ora (Patton) Mann (died 1961). His father taught sociology at the University of Kansas from 1920 to 1926. In 1926, the Manns left Lawrence and moved to Pennsylvania and then Chicago before finally settling in Nashville in 1931. There, his father continued to teach sociology at the Scarritt College for Christian Workers.

Mann was head of his high school drama club when he met Fred Coe, the future television producer and director, who was leading a church-sponsored acting society. Coe would later figure prominently in Mann's career as a director. He graduated there in 1941 with a bachelor's degree on political science. During World War II, Mann served with the Army Air Corps as a B-24 bomber pilot and then as an intelligence officer with the 8th Air Force stationed in England. In 1949, at Coe's invitation, Mann joined him in New York, where he became a stage manager and assistant director at NBC. Within months, he became an alternating director of the anthology series, The Philco Television Playhouse.

Between 1949 and 1955, Mann directed more than 100 live television dramas. But even after turning to films, he returned to television and directed productions for Playhouse 90, Ford Star Jubilee and other dramatic television anthology series. He also directed more than two dozen films for television from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, including Heidi (1968), David Copperfield (1969), Jane Eyre (1970) and All Quiet on the Western Front (1979).

Personal life and death Mann was married to Ann Caroline Gillespie from 1942 until her death by Alzheimer's disease in 2001.

On November 11, 2007, Mann died of pneumonia at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, at age 87.

Filmography

Directed Academy Award performancesUnder Mann's direction, these actors have received Academy Award wins and nominations for their performances in their respective roles.