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IMDbPro

Ralph Nelson(1916-1987)

  • Director
  • Producer
  • Actor
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
Ralph Nelson in The Wrath of God (1972)
Trailer for this black and white classic
Play trailer3:12
Lilies of the Field (1963)
1 Video
3 Photos
In 1959, Emmy Award-winning television director Ralph Nelson directed a 90-minute adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," with John Neville as the Dane, for the DuPont Show of the Month. Nelson himself adapted the 1601 Quatro (the "pirated" version considered corrupt) in order to make a coherent production of a play that uncut, runs four hours. The video-taped presentation essentially is a recording of the Old Vic Company's "Hamlet." The truncated version makes for an effective stage performance of "Hamlet," as Tony Richardson's version with Nicol Williamson ten year later proves. As part of the broadcasting of the play, the CBS network published the TV script in a richly printed, illustrated volume that included a foreword by CBS President Louis G. Cowan.

In the early days of commercial television, executives sought to balance their offerings of such drivel as "Queen for a Day" and "The $64,000 Question" with high culture. In that era, the so-called Golden Age of Television that was soon to expire, quality drama was featured on other omnibus showcases, including "Playhouse 90," the "Armstrong Circle Theatre," and the "United States Steel Hour." It couldn't last, as TV audiences eschewed Toscanini for Liberace and "Romeo & Juliet" for "I Love Lucy," but it proved an excellent training ground for directors.

Nelson won his Emmy the previous year for directing a teleplay for "Playhouse 90" that arguably is the most famous product of the Golden Age of Television after Paddy Chayefsky's "Marty" - Rod Serling's "Requiem for a Heavyweight." Serling won one of his five Emmy awards for "Requiem," and other Nelson collaborators also would taste the sweetest fruits of success: both Sidney Poitier and Cliff Robertson won Best Actor Oscars in Ralph Nelson-directed motion pictures, "Lilies of the Field" (1963) and "Charly" (1968), while E.G. Marshall won two Emmys appearing on "The Defenders," a television drama on which Nelson was one of the directors.

Ralph Nelson was born into a Norwegian-American family in New York City in 1916. He became interested in the theater while attending high school, and won an oratory contest sponsored by the "New York Times" in 1932. His interest in the theater lead him to Broadway, where he worked as an errand boy before making it onto the stage. He made his Broadway debut on January 15, 1934 in "False Dreams, Farewell," and followed it up with parts in "Romeo & Juliet," "Othello," "Macbeth," and "The Taming of the Shrew" through 1940. His last Broadway play before the outbreak of World War II was "There Shall Be No Night," also in 1940, for which he also served as stage manager. During this pre-war period, Nelson worked with such legendary performers as Katharine Cornell, Leslie Howard, and the Lunts.

In World War II, Nelson joined the Army as an air cadet. He was assigned to the stage company that put on Irving Berlin's "This Is the Army" on Broadway, and his award-winning one-act play "Mail Call" was part of a Broadway showcase "Army Play by Play" in 1943, while he was serving with the Air Corps. He eventually was promoted to captain while serving as a flight instructor, and on June 14, 1945, his first full-length play, "The Wind Is Ninety," was presented on Broadway while he was still attached to what was now called the Army Army Air Force. The play won an award from the National Theater Conference. Although Nelson appeared on Broadway again as an actor in the musicals "Cabaret" and "Follies," staged the comedy The Man in the Dog Suit" in 1958, and produced the musical "Look to the Lilies" in 1970, it was the visual media that beckoned. He entered the nascent television industry as an actor, but made the transition to director.

As a director and producer, Nelson had a hand in as many as 1,000 TV presentations in the late 1940s, the 1950s, and the early '60s. He directed the first broadcast of "Playhouse 90" and was a regular contributor to the "General Electric Theater," the "Lux Theater," and the "Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse," among other omnibus showcases in TV's Golden Age. He even directed an episode of Serling's "The Twilight Zone."

When he moved from the little to the Big Screen, his films typically tackled topical subjects such as racism. His most successful and best-remembered film was Lilies of the Field (1963) for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture as producer. Sidney Poitier became the first African American male and only second black person overall to win a competitive acting Oscar. His other major films that have endured were the 1964 Cary Grant comedy Father Goose (1964) and Charly (1968), for which Cliff Robertson won an Oscar. Eventually, Nelson returned to TV, finishing his directing career with Christmas Lilies of the Field (1979), a sequel to his 1963 hit.

Ralph Nelson died in 1987. His son by Celeste Holm, Dr. Theodor "Ted" Holm Nelson' (born 1937) is a pioneer of information technology who invented the term "hypertext" in 1965.
BornAugust 12, 1916
DiedDecember 21, 1987(71)
BornAugust 12, 1916
DiedDecember 21, 1987(71)
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • Nominated for 1 Oscar

Photos

Ralph Nelson in One Step Beyond (1959)
Anthony Quinn and Ralph Nelson in Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)

Known for

Sidney Poitier, Pamela Branch, Isa Crino, Francesca Jarvis, Lisa Mann, and Lilia Skala in Lilies of the Field (1963)
Lilies of the Field
7.5
  • Director
  • 1963
Ann-Margret and Alain Delon in Once a Thief (1965)
Once a Thief
6.5
  • Director
  • 1965
Claire Bloom and Cliff Robertson in Charly (1968)
Charly
6.9
  • Director
  • 1968
"Eighty Yard Run, The" (Playhouse 90) Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. 1957 CBS
Playhouse 90
8.5
TV Series
  • Director

Credits

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IMDbPro

Director

  • Billy Dee Williams in Christmas Lilies of the Field (1979)
    Christmas Lilies of the Field
  • You Can't Go Home Again (1979)
    You Can't Go Home Again
  • Lady of the House (1978)
    Lady of the House
  • Because He's My Friend (1978)
    Because He's My Friend
  • Cicely Tyson, Helen Martin, Larry B. Scott, and Paul Winfield in A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich (1977)
    A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich
  • Embryo (1976)
    Embryo
  • Michael Caine and Sidney Poitier in The Wilby Conspiracy (1975)
    The Wilby Conspiracy
  • The Wrath of God (1972)
    The Wrath of God
  • Flight of the Doves (1971)
    Flight of the Doves
  • Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss in Soldier Blue (1970)
    Soldier Blue
  • Jim Brown in Tick, Tick, Tick (1970)
    Tick, Tick, Tick
  • Claire Bloom and Cliff Robertson in Charly (1968)
    Charly
  • Charlton Heston and Maximilian Schell in Counterpoint (1967)
    Counterpoint
  • Duel at Diablo (1966)
    Duel at Diablo
  • Ann-Margret and Alain Delon in Once a Thief (1965)
    Once a Thief

Producer

  • Billy Dee Williams in Christmas Lilies of the Field (1979)
    Christmas Lilies of the Field
  • Flight of the Doves (1971)
    Flight of the Doves
  • Jim Brown in Tick, Tick, Tick (1970)
    Tick, Tick, Tick
  • Claire Bloom and Cliff Robertson in Charly (1968)
    Charly
  • Duel at Diablo (1966)
    Duel at Diablo
  • Ann-Margret and Alain Delon in Once a Thief (1965)
    Once a Thief
  • The Man Who Bought Paradise (1965)
    The Man Who Bought Paradise
  • Sidney Poitier, Pamela Branch, Isa Crino, Francesca Jarvis, Lisa Mann, and Lilia Skala in Lilies of the Field (1963)
    Lilies of the Field
  • The Dick Powell Theatre (1961)
    The Dick Powell Theatre
  • What About Linda?
  • Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958)
    Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
  • The DuPont Show of the Month (1957)
    The DuPont Show of the Month
  • Shower of Stars (1954)
    Shower of Stars
  • Climax! (1954)
    Climax!
  • Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950)
    Armstrong Circle Theatre

Actor

  • Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul in Starsky and Hutch (1975)
    Starsky and Hutch
  • The Wrath of God (1972)
    The Wrath of God
    • (uncredited)
  • Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss in Soldier Blue (1970)
    Soldier Blue
    • (as Alf Elson)
  • Jim Brown in Tick, Tick, Tick (1970)
    Tick, Tick, Tick
    • (uncredited)
  • Claire Bloom and Cliff Robertson in Charly (1968)
    Charly
    • (uncredited)
  • Charlton Heston and Maximilian Schell in Counterpoint (1967)
    Counterpoint
    • (uncredited)
  • Duel at Diablo (1966)
    Duel at Diablo
    • (as Alf Elson)
  • Sidney Poitier, Pamela Branch, Isa Crino, Francesca Jarvis, Lisa Mann, and Lilia Skala in Lilies of the Field (1963)
    Lilies of the Field
    • (uncredited)
  • Slim Pickens and Edgar Buchanan in Stump Run (1959)
    Stump Run
  • One Step Beyond (1959)
    One Step Beyond
  • Lux Video Theatre (1950)
    Lux Video Theatre
  • Studio One (1948)
    Studio One
  • Kraft Theatre (1947)
    Kraft Theatre

Videos1

Lilies of the Field
Trailer 3:12
Lilies of the Field

Personal details

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    • August 12, 1916
    • Long Island City, New York, USA
    • December 21, 1987
    • Santa Monica, California, USA(cancer)
    • Celeste Holm1936 - 1939 (1 child)
  • Other works
    Active on Broadway in the following productions:

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    As a boy in New York in the Depression era he was a hell-raiser and the despair of his parents. Judge Ferdinand Pecora described him as "potentially the most juvenile criminal in New York". A teacher at Bryant High School got him interested in drama as an outlet for his energy; he later said, "That teacher saved my life".

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