Joseph Sargent

Joseph Sargent
Sargent at the premiere of Something the Lord Made in 2004
Born	Giuseppe Danielle Sorgente (1925-07-22)July 22, 1925 Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	December 22, 2014(2014-12-22) (aged 89) Malibu, California, U.S.
Other names	Joseph Daniel Sargent
Occupation	Film director
Years active	1951–2009
Known for	White Lightning MacArthur Nightmares Jaws: The Revenge The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Spouse(s)	Mary Carver ​ ​ (m. 1952; div. 1968)​ Carolyn Nelson ​ (m. 1970)​
Children	2, including Lia Sargent

Joseph Sargent (born Giuseppe Danielle Sorgente; July 22, 1925 – December 22, 2014) was an American film director. Though he directed many television movies, his best known feature-length works were arguably the theatrical releases: Burt Reynolds action movie White Lightning, Gregory Peck biopic MacArthur, and horror anthology Nightmares. His most popular feature film was the subway thriller The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. Sargent won four Emmy Awards over his career.

He is the father of voice actress Lia Sargent.

Life and career[]

Sargent was born as Giuseppe Danielle Sorgente in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Italians Maria (née Noviello) and Domenico Sorgente.^[1][2] Sargent began his career as an actor, appearing in numerous films and television programs.

He appeared in an uncredited role as a soldier in the film From Here to Eternity (1953) where he also met his first wife Mary Carver on the set. In the mid 1950s Sargent switched to directing; over the next 15 years his directing credits would include episodes of television series Lassie, The Invaders, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Star Trek. He did make a TV appearance as a drunk cowboy who gets killed in The Longbranch Saloon in the 1959 Western series Gunsmoke, in the episode “”There Never Was A Horse” (S4 E35).

In 1969, he directed his first feature, science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, and in 1972 The Man, starring James Earl Jones, which was begun as a television movie.

He alternated between television movies and feature films during the 1970s. Sargent's directorial work from this period includes; The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, the TV movies Hustling with Lee Remick and Jill Clayburgh, Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring with Sally Field and Tribes with Jan-Michael Vincent and Darren McGavin, as well as international award-winning ABC film The Night That Panicked America. In 1974, he won his first Directors Guild of America Award for (1973), which was the TV movie pilot for the Kojak series.

In the 1980s, Sargent directed mini-series Manions of America, which featured Pierce Brosnan, and . In 1987 he directed Jaws: The Revenge, the third sequel to Steven Spielberg's 1975 classic. The film received entirely negative reviews. Roger Ebert called his directing of the climactic sequence "incompetent,"^[3] and he was nominated for Worst Director in the 1987 Golden Raspberry Awards.^[4]

He concentrated on TV movies after Jaws: The Revenge, including The Karen Carpenter Story, The Long Island Incident, Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and the 2007 remake of Sally Field docudrama Sybil.

Joseph Sargent and his wife Carolyn Nelson Sargent laid the groundwork for Deaf West Theatre.^[5]

Sargent spent time as the Senior Filmmaker-in-Residence for the Directing program at the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles.

Sargent died of complications from heart disease at his home in Malibu, California, on December 22, 2014. He was 89.^[6]

Awards[]

Sargent was nominated for several Emmy awards. He won four. His first nomination came for his direction of TV movie Tribes (1970). His second nomination, for Kojak pilot The Marcus-Nelson Murders (1973), resulted in his first Emmy win. He also won Emmys for Love Is Never Silent (1985), Caroline? (1990) and Miss Rose White (1992).

Sargent was also nominated for (1980), A Lesson Before Dying (1999), Something the Lord Made (2004) and Warm Springs (2005), in which Kenneth Branagh played president Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Early in his career, he won a Directors Guild of America award for the Kojak pilot. Sargent was nominated for eight DGA awards for television movies, more than any other director in this category. In 2005 he won the DGA Outstanding Directorial Achievement award for , and another the following year for Warm Springs.

Filmography[]

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Actor	Notes
1953	From Here to Eternity			N
1959		N
1967	One Spy Too Many	N			Re-edit of a two-part The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episodes The Concrete Overcoat Affair with different shots and dialog.
1967	Tobruk			N
1967	The Spy in the Green Hat	N			Re-edit of a two-part The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episodes Alexander the Greater Affair with new scenes added.
1968	The Hell with Heroes	N
1970	Colossus: The Forbin Project	N
	Tribes	N			Nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.
1972	Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring	N	N
	The Man	N
1973	The Marcus-Nelson Murders	N			Pilot film for Kojak. Winner of Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special. Won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film.
	White Lightning	N
1974	The Taking of Pelham One Two Three	N
1975	Friendly Persuasion	N	N
	The Night That Panicked America	N	N
	Hustling	N
1977	MacArthur	N
1979	Goldengirl	N
1980		N
		N			Nominated for .
1981	Freedom	N
	Manions of America	N
1983	Nightmares	N			Won the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival.
	Memorial Day	N
	Choices of the Heart	N	N
1984	Terrible Joe Moran	N
1985	Love Is Never Silent	N			Won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.
	Space	N			Emmy Award, Outstanding Film Sound Mixing for a Limited Series or a Special Emmy Award nominee, Outstanding Limited Series Artios Award nominee, Best Casting for TV Miniseries
1986	There Must Be a Pony	N	N
1987	Jaws: The Revenge	N	N		Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Picture Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Director
1989	The Karen Carpenter Story	N
	Day One	N
1990	The Incident	N
	Caroline?	N			Won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.
	Ivory Hunters	N
1991	Never Forget	N
1992	Miss Rose White	N			Won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.
	Somebody's Daughter	N	N
1993	Skylark	N	N
	Abraham	N
1994	World War II: When Lions Roared	N			Noinated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film.
1995	My Antonia	N
	Streets of Laredo	N
1997	Miss Evers' Boys	N			Nominated for Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film.
	Mandela and de Klerk	N
1998	The Long Island Incident	N	N
	Crime and Punishment	N	N
	The Wall	N	N
1999	A Lesson Before Dying	N			Nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.
2000	For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story	N			Nominated for Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film.
2001	Bojangles	N
	Salem Witch Trials	N
2003	Out of the Ashes	N
2004	Something the Lord Made	N			Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing in a Television Film. Nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.
2005	Warm Springs	N			Won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film. Nominee for a Primetime Emmy for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.
2007	Sybil	N
2008	Sweet Nothing in My Ear	N

References[]

External links[]

• Joseph Sargent at IMDb
• Biography at Hollywood.com at archive.today (archived 2013-01-25) Includes details of awards.
• Joseph Sargent at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television