Celebrity Biographies
Ted Post
A respected director of television series, he directed two Clint Eastwood feature films and a sequel to “Planet of the Apes.” Ted Post passed away on August 20, 2013 at the age of 95 at his residence in Santa Monica, California.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 31, 1918, Ted Post liked to remember that he started out in the world of movies as an usher, working in a theater on weekends while he studied. Initially he was determined to become an actor, so he took acting classes with Tamara Daykarhanova.
Later, Ted Post enrolled in Drama at the High School of Performing Arts, in his hometown. He convinced his great friend Sidney Lumet to do the same , who would become a renowned filmmaker. For his part, Post abandoned his acting aspirations, and began directing theatrical productions.
He started working on television in the early 50s, taking charge of episodes of emblematic series, such as The Virginian , The Defenders and Perry Mason , among others. He also filmed more than 20 episodes of Rawhide , the series starring a very young Clint Eastwood .
When Eastwood launched his American feature film career, after success with Sergio Leone ‘s European films , he demanded that Post take over directing his first, They Made Two Mistakes . It was a huge success, so Eastwood later turned to Post again to take care of Strong Harry , the second installment in the saga started with Dirty Harry .
But Post did not come out of this experience unscathed. “Eastwood changed things in the edit without consulting me.” In addition, he accused the actor of having led the movie world to believe that he himself had been the true director of the film, which put an end to Post’s filmmaking career.
Apart from having been in charge of Return to the Planet of the Apes , the second installment of the ‘simian’ franchise, with Charlton Heston in a brief appearance, Post was also responsible for The Brave Wear Black , an action film with Chuck Norris , from the war film The Patrol , with Burt Lancaster and the comedy A crazy, crazy, crazy experiment , with Elliott Gould .
At the end of his career he returned to lavish himself on television, with episodes of Rich Man, Poor Man , the pilot for Cagney and Lacey , and the small-screen version of Stagecoach starring country stars Willie Nelson , Johnny Cash in 1986. and Kris Kristofferson .