Robert Mulligan

Director

About

Birth Place

Bronx, New York, USA

Born

August 23, 1925

Died

December 19, 2008

Cause of Death

Heart Disease

Biography

Filmography

The Man in the Moon (1991)

Director

Clara's Heart (1988)

Director

Kiss Me Goodbye (1982)

Director

Same Time, Next Year (1978)

Director

Bloodbrothers (1978)

Director

The Nickel Ride (1975)

Director

Photos & Videos

View All

To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Squirrels And Rabbits

Bloodbrothers (1978) -- (Movie Clip) Take A Run At Old Three Finger

Family & Companions

Jane Lee Sutherland

Wife

Actor. Married in 1952.

Biography

Critically-neglected for his lack of a consistent, visual style in an era that prizes an auteur's distinctive stamp, Robert Mulligan allowed his stories to dictate their look, so there is nothing about the black-and-white measured pictorialism of arguably his greatest film, "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962), that would indicate he was the same man responsible for "Summer of '42" (1971), its pastel prettiness evoking the nostalgia of memory. The former divinity student started as a messenger at CBS and rose through the ranks, establishing himself during the 1950s helming fare for that network's "Playhouse 90," "Suspense" and "TV Playhouse," among other series. Noted for his deft handling of actors, Mulligan graduated to features with "Fear Strikes Out" (1957), an absorbing account of the personal problems which led baseball star Jim Piersall (Anthony Perkins) to a nervous breakdown. Before directing another film, he would helm two highly-acclaimed TV projects, "Member of the Wedding" (CBS, 1958) and "The Moon and Sixpence" (NBC, 1959), winning an Emmy for the latter.

Mulligan is not a director without through lines in his work. Beginning with Piersall, outsiders have fascinated him, and he has returned to that theme again and again: the enlightened attorney (Academy Award-winning Gregory Peck) at odds with the bigoted community of "Mockingbird"; the ex-convict (Steve McQueen) in "Baby the Rain Must Fall" (1965), trying to adjust to life outside the penitentiary; the real-life character of Ferdinand Demara (Tony Curtis) in "The Great Impostor" (1960), gaining entrance to normally off-limit situations through his skillful impersonations. Then there is his extraordinary insight into the world of the child or adolescent. Who can forget Scout, the little girl through whose eyes the audience sees her small town's racism in "Mockingbird"? He has given us the lost and jaded students of "Up the Down Staircase" (1967), the pubescent boys who learn about sex and morality in "Summer of '42," the irrevocably evil child of "The Other" (1972) and the tomboy coming of age in "The Man in the Moon" (1991).

His collaboration with producer Alan J Pakula yielded some of his best work, particularly the enduring "Mockingbird," which continues to please audiences whether they are viewing it for the first or fifth time. After their partnership ended, Mulligan proved himself with such other successes as "Summer of '42" and "The Other," a gothic chiller adapted from the novel by Tom Tryon, but missed with much of his later work like "Kiss Me Goodbye" (1982), a reworking of the Brazilian film "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands," and "Clara's Heart" (1988), which explored the relationship between a Jamaican nanny (Whoopi Goldberg) and her young, impressionable charge (Neil Patrick Harris). He rebounded with his last feature (to date), "The Man in the Moon," an old-fashioned weepie set in the rural Louisiana of 1957, featuring newcomer Reese Witherspoon as a 14-year-old in love with an older boy, who in turn prefers her college-bound sister. Mulligan showed he had not lost his touch for drawing compelling performances from adolescent actors.

Filmography

Life Events

1955

Helmed segments of NBC's "The Alcoa Hour"

1956

Directed "Victor Borge's Comedy in Music (I and II)" (both for CBS)

1957

Feature film debut as director, "Fear Strikes Out"

1958

Broadway directing debut, "Comes a Day", starring Judith Anderson

1958

Produced and directed the CBS telecast of "The Member of the Wedding", adapted from the novel by Carson McCullers

1959

Won an Emmy for directing NBC's "The Moon and Sixpence", based on the Somerset Maugham novel, starring Anderson and Laurence Olivier; also produced

1962

With Alan J Pakula, founded Pakula-Mulligan Productions

1962

Received Oscar nomination as Best Director for "To Kill a Mockingbird"; first Pakula-Mulligan feature

1965

First feature credit as producer (with Pakula), "Inside Daisy Clover", an underrated Hollywood expose starring Natalie Wood and Robert Redford; also directed

1969

Dissolved Pakula-Mulligan Productions

1971

Narrated and directed "Summer of '42"

1972

Directed and produced "The Other"

1979

Co-produced and directed "Same Time, Next Year", based on Bernard Slade's two-character Broadway play

1991

Last feature (to date) as director, "Man in the Moon"

Photo Collections

To Kill a Mockingbird - Lobby Card Set

Here is a set of lobby cards from Universal Pictures' To Kill a Mockingbird (1963), starring Gregory Peck. Lobby Cards were 11" x 14" posters that came in sets of 8. As the name implies, they were most often displayed in movie theater lobbies, to advertise current or coming attractions.