Howard Zieff

On Sunday, February 22, director Howard Zieff died in Los Angeles. The filmmaker was 81 years old and had suffered from Parkinson’s for more than nine years. Zieff does not have a very extensive filmography, but he will go down in history as the director responsible for the two installments of My Girl , a dramatic youthful love story that was one of the springboards for the young Macaulay Culkin .

Howard Zieff was born on October 21, 1927 in Los Angeles. In the sixties he began as a photographer in the world of advertising, where he soon became a director of advertisements. He has dedicated his entire life to advertising, which made him one of the most influential names in the United States in this profession. His success as a publicist made Hollywood take notice of him. After receiving several offers, Zieff decided to accept that of Metro Goldwyn Mayer to direct the comedy Slither (1973) with James Caan.as protagonist. Defined as a man with a great sense of humor, her widow and agent Ronda Gomez-Quinones emphasizes that the one who was her husband never lost the ability to laugh. With this way of being, it is not surprising that Zieff’s relationship with the cinema continued on the path of comedy. Thus, he directed Walter Matthau in Joys of a Widower (1978), Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal in Close Combat (1979), Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin (1980) and Dudley Moore in Unfaithfully Yours (1984) . . But his most remembered title came in 1991 with My girl. This family film of youthful love was the definitive accolade for little Macaulay Culkin, who made half the world cry with this title. The success of the film led to a sequel that Zieff directed again, My Girl 2 (1994), in what would be his last film work.