Ted Post

Theodore Ian Post (March 31, 1918 – August 20, 2013) was an American director of film and television.^[1] Highly prolific, Post directed numerous episodes of well-known television series including Rawhide, Gunsmoke, and The Twilight Zone as well as blockbuster films such as Hang 'Em High, Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Magnum Force.

Ted Post
Born	Theodore Ian Post (1918-03-31)March 31, 1918 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	August 20, 2013(2013-08-20) (aged 95) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupation	Director
Spouse	Thelma Fiefel ​ ​ (m. 1940⁠–⁠2013)​ (his death)
Children	2, including Robert C. Post

Early life and career

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Post started his career in 1938 working as an usher at Loew's Pitkin Theater.^{[citation needed]} He abandoned plans to become an actor after training with Tamara Daykarhanova, and turned to directing summer theater, where Post began his lengthy association in the director's chair. Upon returning home from his service with the U.S. Army's Special Services division in Italy during World War II,^[2] he resumed his experience in theater and when the new medium of television was born, his career took off.

Post taught acting and drama at New York's High School of Performing Arts in 1950. He persuaded his friend Sidney Lumet to do likewise.^{[citation needed]}

Directorial career

Success in the theater led to directorial work in television from the early 1950s, beginning with The Ford Television Theatre. Post directed episodes of many series, including Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, Wagon Train, Rawhide, The Twilight Zone, Combat!, Columbo and 178 episodes of Peyton Place. He also directed TV films (including the original Cagney & Lacey film-of-the-week).

He also directed feature films, including the second installment of the Planet of the Apes film series, Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Go Tell the Spartans (1978), Good Guys Wear Black (1978), starring Chuck Norris, and two Clint Eastwood films, Hang 'Em High, the movie which launched Clint Eastwood's career as a leading man in American pictures, and Magnum Force.^[3]

Post directed the 2001–02 Festival of the Arts at the University of Judaism (now the American Jewish University).^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Post married the former Thelma Fiefel in 1940. They had two children, one of whom is the law scholar and professor Robert Post.

Post died at the UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, California on August 20, 2013.^[4]

Selected filmography

Film

• The Peacemaker (1956)
• The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959)
• Hang 'Em High (1968)
• Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
• The Baby (1973)
• The Harrad Experiment (1973)
• Magnum Force (1973)
• Whiffs (1975)
• Good Guys Wear Black (1978)
• Go Tell the Spartans (1978)
• Nightkill (1980)
• The Human Shield (1991)
• 4 Faces (1999)

TV movies

• The Great Merlini (1951, pilot)
• Espionage: Far East (1961)
• Night Slaves (1970)
• Dr. Cook's Garden (1971)
• Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate (1971)
• Yuma (1971)
• Five Desperate Women (1971)
• The Bravos (1972)
• Sandcastles (1972)
• The Girls in the Office (1979)
• Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker (1979)
• Cagney & Lacey (1981)
• Stagecoach (1986)

Television

• Armstrong Circle Theatre (1952)
• The Ford Television Theatre (1953)
• Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1953)
• Gunsmoke (1955)
• Medic (1955)
• Zane Grey Theatre (1956)
• Screen Directors Playhouse (1956)
• The 20th Century Fox Hour (1956)
• Sneak Preview (1956)
• Perry Mason (1957)
• Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957)
• West Point (1957)
• Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958)
• The Rifleman (1958)
• Law of the Plainsman (1959)
• The Westerner (1960)
• Checkmate (1960)
• Startime (1960) (The Young Juggler)
• Wagon Train (1960)
• Insight (1960)
• Alcoa Premiere (1961)
• The Defenders (1961)
• Route 66 (1961)
• The Virginian (1962)
• Combat! (1962)
• Empire (1962)
• Thriller (1961–1962)
• General Electric Theater (1962)
• Bus Stop (1962)
• Rawhide (1960–1962)
• Peyton Place (1964)
• The Twilight Zone (1960–1964)
• Bracken's World (1969)
• Monty Nash (1971)
• Baretta (1975)
• Ark II (1976)
• Columbo (1976)
• Future Cop (1977)
• Beyond Westworld (1980)
• B.A.D. Cats (1980)

Short films

• The Return of Phileas Fogg (1957)