Biography

Was a first cousin, once removed of Sid Grauman, known for building Hollywood's Chinese and Egyptian movie theaters. His father was Sid's first cousin.

Arabesque (1984) production designer Hub Braden noted that Grauman rotated with the show's directing teams, directing four to six episodes a season. His preparation for his assignment always established a preliminary production meeting, where he and the staff would review the script, scene by scene. The backside of his MSW script pages would include notations for his shot notes, camera angles, actors' positions and movement motivations. He would let Braden copy his script in its entirety, and Braden would share Grauman's specific notes with the set decorator and property master. Grauman did his homework, being the most prepared "prepared" director Braden said he had ever dealt with. Braden first worked with Grauman on the Irwin Allen-produced movie-of-the-week Au-dessus de la loi (1986) featuring Robert Preston. Allen meddled with the director, cinematographer and cast during production. Grauman, always the gentleman, would manage to mollify Allen while allowing the production to progress smoothly. In directing episodes of "Murder, She Wrote" during the final denouement scene, the entire cast had to be lined up in a group arrangement featuring Angela Lansbury's "Jessica Fletcher" solving the crime and exposing the perpetrator(s). This shot became known as "The Flying Wing." Grauman's memory was awesome, except on one occasion--filming an exterior scene on a San Fernando Valley golf course, redressed as NYC's Central Park. Arriving on the set on shoot day, he reversed his camera angles and actor's motivation in the scene. He had forgotten to analyze the sun's position and direction for the cinematographer's lighting, a backlight set-up. The construction and greens crew had to re-dress the entire golf course green, including bushes, rocks, fencing, park signs and benches, while Grauman shot at another location. He had not considered Lansbury's backlight halo for the staging of the walk-and-talk action. She preferred to be filmed with her left profile, and his shot angles and scene motivation always established this aspect in his directing.

After his war service he had a succession of short-lived jobs, including working as an agent's assistant from offices located on the southwest corner at Western Ave. and Hollywood Blvd., which was the core of the agents representing talent during the late 1940s and 1950s. The area contained such studios as Columbia, Paramount, Warners, Goldwyn, 20th Century-Fox's sound stages, KTLA, NBC, CBS, ABC and The Don Lee television facility broadcasting stages, which stretched east and west on Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards to Prospect and Talmadge Boulevard. Grauman next landed a job in the publicity department at Universal Studios, but he felt that local television programs were so terrible he could do better. Starting as a stage manager at NBC, he co-created Lights, Camera, Action! (1950), a talent showcase/contest for performers, including Leonard Nimoy (who did not win his showcase episode). Grauman went from that show back to NBC where he directed Matinee Theater (1955) and the Lux Video Theatre (1950) anthology live afternoon network programs. His big break was directing episodes of the hit series Les incorruptibles (1959). TV historian Stephen Bowie wrote in his "Classic TV History" that Grauman's work on the series marked its "transformation from a simplistic cops-and-robbers shoot-'em-up into a richer, more character-driven melodrama." Grauman's credits include numerous episodes of hit TV shows such as Arabesque (1984), Barnaby Jones (1973), the "Columbo" specials and Le fugitif (1963). He battled heart and vascular problems, and died of natural causes at 93 years of age at his home on Sunset Vale Avenue, on the foothill behind the famous Sunset Strip's Schwab's Drug Store, near the end of the famous Hollywood Sunset Strip where Sunset joins Beverly Hills.

He had no background in theater or films when he began directing television in the late 1950s, during the era of live TV; consequently, he often learned the business in a "trial by fire". Beginning as a stage manager, his knack for working with actors and crews resulted in his being promoted to direct live TV shows. In 1957, for Frankenstein (1957), he cast former heavyweight champion boxer Primo Carnera as the monster. At one point Carnera was supposed to pick up a stunt man and carry him a bit before putting him down, but the hulking boxer got carried away. "He grabbed him, he lifts him up like a toy and threw him," Grauman related in a 2009 Academy of Television Arts and Sciences interview, "and the guy went right through the wall of scenery. Luckily, the stunt man was not badly hurt and the live show went on without interruption. One of those live TV incidents typical of the early madcap examples of pioneer live TV." It was the kind of situation that made Grauman nearly unflappable as a director, especially when dealing with stars. When he directed Meurtre en deux temps (1990)), Peter Falk rejected his setup of a shot, insisting that a pair of underwear on an actress be worn inside-out with the tag showing, "I thought Falk was crazy--what the hell did that have to do with the story?" Grauman said. "Falk didn't explain it nor was it in the script, but by the end of the filming, the underwear turned out to be a clever clue. That son-of-a-bitch had figured it out in his head," Grauman concluded.

He was born in Milwaukee, WI, where his father owned several movie theaters. His father's cousin Sid Grauman built the Egyptian and the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Walter attended the University of Wisconsin for a couple of years and then briefly the University of Arizona before enlisting in the Army during World War II. As a pilot in the Army Air Force, he flew more than 50 missions in Europe and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.