- Born
- Died
- Birth nameDonald Siegel
- Height1.75 m
- Don Siegel was educated at Cambridge University, England. In Hollywood from the mid-'30s, he began his career as an editor and second unit director. In 1945 he directed two shorts (Hitler Lives (1945) and Star in the Night (1945)) which both won Academy Awards. His first feature as a director was 1946's The Verdict (1946). He made his reputation in the early and mid-'50s with a series of tightly made, expertly crafted, tough but intelligent "B" pictures (among them La ronde du crime (1958), Les révoltés de la cellule 11 (1954), L'Invasion des profanateurs de sépultures (1956)), then graduated to major "A" films in the 1960s and early 1970s. He made several "side trips" to television, mostly as a producer. Siegel directed what is generally considered to be Elvis Presley's best picture, Les rôdeurs de la plaine (1960). He had a long professional relationship and personal friendship with Clint Eastwood, who has often said that everything he knows about filmmaking he learned from Don Siegel.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Otto Oberhauser <Oberhauser@cc.univie.ac.at>
- SpousesCarol Rydall(April 24, 1981 - April 20, 1991) (his death)Doe Avedon(February 1, 1957 - April 1975) (divorced, 4 children)Viveca Lindfors(August 10, 1949 - May 27, 1954) (divorced, 1 child)
- ChildrenKatherine Dorothy SalvaderiAnney Mary Margaret Siegel
- Frequently cast Clint Eastwood.
- Known for his extensive preparation and highly efficient shooting style, which were the main influence on the directing style of his protege, Clint Eastwood
- Strong male characters and scheming female characters (if there were any major female characters in the stories at all), frequently leading to charges of misogyny
- His films were frequently interpreted as having controversial, right-wing political or sociological undertone, which Siegel never commented on
- Was mentor to Clint Eastwood. Eastwood dedicated his film Impitoyable (1992) to him.
- Siegel and producer Walter Wanger had been desperately trying to persuade the warden of San Quentin Prison to allow the use of the facility to film Les révoltés de la cellule 11 (1954), but the warden had adamantly refused. After the final meeting in the prison, when the warden had said there was nothing Siegel or Wanger could do to persuade him to allow filming there, Siegel turned to speak to his assistant, Sam Peckinpah. When the warden heard Peckinpah's name, he asked, "Are you related to Denver Peckinpah?" Sam replied that Denver was his father. It turned out that Denver Peckinpah was a well-known jurist in northern California who had a reputation as a "hanging judge" and the warden had long been an admirer of his. He immediately granted the company permission to shoot the movie in San Quentin.
- During filming of L'Inspecteur Harry (1971), Siegel fell ill with the flu, and Clint Eastwood stepped in temporarily as director, during a critical scene involving a suicide jumper. This was Eastwood's first unbilled credit as director.
- Siegel was the first director to be credited by the Director's Guild of America's universal pseudonym Alan Smithee, for Une poignée de plombs (1969). Siegel wished to remain uncredited because he felt the film's star, Richard Widmark, ruined the picture by insisting on creative control that usurped Siegel's authority as director, and also because Widmark had fired original director Robert Totten, who completed most of the picture, and Siegel felt that if anyone should be credited for the film it should have been Totten and not him.
- Was Sam Peckinpah's mentor.
- Most of my pictures, I'm sorry to say, are about nothing. Because I'm a whore. I work for money. It's the American way.
- I once told [Jean-Luc Godard] that he had something I wanted--freedom. He said, "You have something I want--money".
- [on editing] If you shake a movie, ten minutes will fall out.
- [on working with Bette Midler in La flambeuse de Las Vegas (1982)] I'd let my wife, children and animals starve before I'd subject myself to something like that again.
- [on Walter Wanger] He was a rarity among producers. He encouraged creativity. He wasn't only interested in protecting himself, which is what most producers do.
- L'évadé d'Alcatraz (1979) - $2,000,000
- Le dernier des géants (1977) - $250,000
- Les révoltés de la cellule 11 (1954) - $10,000
- Table Tennis (1936) - $600
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