William Self (actor/producer)

William Edwin Self (born June 21, 1921), is an American television and feature film producer who began his career as an actor.

William Self graduated from the University of Chicago in 1943 before traveling to Los Angeles to be an actor. His first film role was Private Gawky Henderson in "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1945) directed by William Wellman. Self also appeared in four films directed by Howard Hawks, including "Red River" (1948) and the Science Fiction cult classic, "The Thing from Another World" (1951). [Weaver, Tom "Eye on Science Fiction; 20 Interviews with Classic SF and Horror Filmakers" (2003, pgs.269-301) Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company] Between 1945 and 1952, he appeared in over thirty films.

In 1952, Self left acting to launch a life-long career in television production. His first producing credit was Assistant to the Producer on the series "China Smith" starring Dan Duryea. From 1952 until 1956, Self was acting-producer (billed as Associate Producer) [ [http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=william+self Interviews (2001) on Google Video] ] and then Producer of the "Schlitz Playhouse of Stars". During this period, he produced two-hundred-eight half-hour episodes at fifty-two episodes per year. Many notable actors appeared as guest stars including Anthony Quinn, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, Walter Brennan, Ronald Reagan, Rod Steiger, Charles Bronson, and James Dean.

Self moved on to produce The Frank Sinatra Show in 1957. Later that year, he accepted the post of Program Executive for CBS Television Network where his assignment was to develop new television series. The first pilot he produced was Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone".

Self was hired in 1959 by 20th Century Fox Film Corporation where he remained for fifteen years. During this period, Self piloted Fox television from near-extinction to become one of the top suppliers of television programming in the business. [Haber, Deborah (1965 September) "The Studio that Came in from the Cold" "Television Magazine" (vol. XXII, no. 9, pgs.32--35; 61-64)] In 1966, Fox had more television hours on the air than any other supplier. ["20th Holds Vidpix Prod'n Lead" "Daily Variety" (1966 3 22) Pgs. 1;18] Significant among Fox series were "Peyton Place" (1964-1969), the first Prime Time soap-opera; "Batman" (1966-1968), the first series based on a comic book to air in Prime Time; "Julia" (1968-1971), the first weekly television series to star an African American woman; and the enduring classic "M*A*S*H*" (1972-1983). Other notable series were "Daniel Boone" (1964-1969), "12 O'Clock High" (1964-1967), "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (1964-1968), "Lost in Space" (1965-1968), "The Green Hornet" (1966-1967), "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir" (1968-1970), "Land of the Giants" (1968-1970), and "Room 222" (1969-1972).

Self's talents were rewarded by the studio as he was promoted progressively from his original position of Executive Producer/Twentieth Century Fox Television (1962) to Vice-President/Twentieth Century Fox Television (1964) to President/Twentieth Century Fox Television (1968), and finally to Vice-President/Twentieth Century Fox Corporation. ["Self Promoted to Presidency of 20th-Fox TV" "Daily Variety" (1968 11 1) Pgs. 1;26]

Self left Fox in 1975 to partner with Mike Frankovich in the development and production of television and feature films. [Kaufman, Dave (1975 1 7) "Mike Frankovich, Bill Self Form Indie Prod'n Outfit for Theatrical Features, TV" "Daily Variety" pgs. 1;3] Although the partnership lasted just a little over a year, Frankovich/Self produced two feature films. These were "The Shootist" (1976), John Wayne's last film, and "From Noon Till Three" (1976) starring Charles Bronson.

Self returned to CBS in 1977 as Vice-President/Head of the West Coast. A year later, he took on a new challenge when he accepted the position of Vice President in Charge of Television Movies and Mini-Series, also for CBS. Before leaving this job in 1982, he supervised production of about fifty films and three or four mini-series per year. These included "The Corn is Green" (1979) starring Katharine Hepburn; "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1979) starring Ernest Borgnine and Richard Thomas; "Guyana Tragedy" (1980) starring Powers Boothe; "Playing for Time" (1980) starring Vanessa Redgrave; "The Bunker" (1981) starring Anthony Hopkins; "Bill" (1981) starring Mickey Rooney and Dennis Quaid; "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1982) starring Anthony Hopkins; and "The Blue and the Gray" (1982), an American Civil War mini-series which garnered four prime-time Emmy nominations. [The Evolution of an Art Form; The Making of Motion Pictures for Television on CBS, (1982) CBS Television Network Sales/Marketing Services]

Self returned to the feature film in 1982 when he was made President of CBS Theatrical Film Production. He served in this capacity for three years, supervising the making of ten movies including "Target" (1985) directed by Arthur Penn and starring Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon; "Eleni" (1985) directed by Peter Yates and starring Kate Nelligan and John Malkovich; "Better Off Dead" (1985) with John Cusack; and "Turtle Diary" (1985) starring Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley.

In 1985, when CBS decided to get out of the feature film business, Self established the independent William Self Productions to develop both television and feature films. In partnership with Norman Rosemont, Self produced "The Tenth Man" (1988) for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. It starred Anthony Hopkins, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Derek Jacobi. He also joined in partnership with Glenn Close to produce three television movies for Hallmark: "Sarah, Plain and Tall" (1991), "Skylark" (1993), and "" (1999), all starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken. "Sarah, Plain and Tall" received the highest rating of any Hallmark Hall of Fame to that date.

Self married his college sweetheart, Margaret Flynn, in 1941. This union lasted until her death in 2007. Self has two children, Edwin and Barbara. He is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the Director's Guild of America. He has been involved in non-profit work for many years, serving on the Board of Trustees of the John Tracy Clinic, the Motion Picture and Television Fund, and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.

Unfortunately, Self is listed on IMDB as Production Manager, a job he never performed and a credit he never received.

Early Life and Education

William Edwin Self was born June 21, 1921 at Miami Valley Hospital, Dayton, Ohio. During his youth, he lived in Dayton, Akron, Chicago, and Milwaukee. He graduated from Dayton's Roosevelt High School in 1939.

Self's father, Edwin Byron Self, had little formal education, but a great love for reading and study. Starting out as a copywriter, he rose through the ranks to become a high-level advertising executive, holding the position of Advertising Manager at the Dayton Rubber Manufacturing Company, Akron Rubber Company, Miller Brewing Company, and, lastly, Joseph Schiltz Brewing Company. Edwin Self was also a writer. His novel "Limbo City" was published in 1949 to good reviews. Three of his plays opened on Broadway, but closed after short runs. These were "Junk" (1927) starring Sydney Greenstreet, [Spiro, J.S. (1944 12 28) "Milwaukee's William Self and His Tennis Racket in Hollywood Swing Now" "The Milwaukee Journal"] "Two Strange Women"(1933), and "The Distant City" (1941). His play, "The Lady and the Clown", starring Estelle Winwood, opened in 1944 at the Civic Theatre in Chicago with William Self playing a small part. Edwin and Elizabeth (Elsie) Fundus Self, a homemaker, had two children: Willliam and Jean LaVerne Self (later Bright).

From childhood, Self has had "enthusiasms," keen interests that started when he was young and have continued throughout his life. Some of these interests have resulted in important connections and personal friendships. Self's fascination with Rudolph Valentino, for example, began when he was only five years old and his sister took him to see "The Son of the Sheik" (1926). Self has said that because his sister told him that Valentino had just died, he expected to see the movie idol in his casket on screen. Valentino stayed in Self's mind. He saw all the movies and read all the books he could find. As an adult, he became friends with Valentino's personal manager, George Ullman; one of Valentino's best friends, Robert Florey; as well as with Valentino's brother, Alberto. He is still in touch with members of the Valentino family.

It was also show business that led Self to become an accomplished tennis player. In 1932, age eleven, his parents took him to New York to see a Broadway production of "Show Boat". Self's father pointed out tennis champion Bill Tilden in the lobby, telling him that Tilden was the greatest living tennis player. Self didn't know anything about tennis, but he was impressed. He asked Tilden to sign his program. Back in Dayton, Self bought Tilden's book, "Match Play and the Spin of the Ball", [Tilden, Bill "Match Play and the Spin of the Ball" New York Lawn Tennis Assocation, 1925] and talked his parents into purchasing him a tennis racket. With time, he would become runner-up in the Wisconsin Junior Tennis Championship, represent Wisconsin on the Junior Davis Cup team, and, in 1945, win The Wisconsin State Men's Championship. Self played Varsity tennis at the University of Chicago, and, in his Senior Year was elected Captain of the team. When he came to Los Angeles in 1944 as an unknown and untried actor, his skill at tennis allowed him to make important contacts. He regularly played with Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Charlie Chaplin, and Jack Warner, among other Hollywood notables. He also became friends with and played Bill Tilden.

One of Self's favorite hobbies is magic. When he was thirteen years old, he won a citywide contest, mounted by the renowned magician Howard Thurston and his traveling show, to name "Dayton's Best Amateur Magician and the Person Most Likely to Become Thurston's Successor." The contest was limited to children thirteen and under. Being the winner, Self appeared at the Colonial Theatre, on the stage with Mr. Thurston, to perform his trick. Although he had never before performed this trick in public (a fact he had left out on his contest application), it went off perfectly. Self's photograph was taken with Thurston, and a notice appeared in a Dayton newspaper. Today, he is friends with some of the best-known magicians and magic historians in the United States, and attends many of the major magic conventions. For many years, he was a member of The Magic Castle, a professional magician's club in Hollywood. In later years he became a close friend of Howard Thurston's daughter, Jane, who had appeared on stage with her father.

Another film that sparked a life-long interest was Annie Oakley (1936), starring Barbara Stanwyck. Self was fifteen years old when he saw the movie at the Keith Theatre in Dayton. Annie Oakley's brother, who lived in nearby Greenville, Ohio, had lent some of his Oakley memorabilia for display in the lobby. The film and the memorabilia fired Self's imagination, and his fascination with Oakley and Buffalo Bill Cody took root. He looked up Oakley's brother in Greenville and the two became friends. He also started writing an Oakley biography. To research this project, Self, age seventeen, persuaded his family to travel to Cody, Wyoming so that Self could study the Oakley scrapbooks in the small log structure which housed the Buffalo Bill Museum. He also persuaded the museum's founder and curator, Mary Jester Allen (Buffalo Bill's niece), to name him Assistant Historian. Self had letterhead stationary and business cards printed with this title, although he never did anything in the position. The book was never published, but Self went on to serve on the Board of Trustees of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center: the five-museum, five-football-fields-sized outgrowth of the original institution. Many of Oakley's grand-nieces and nephews are his friends.

Not surprisingly, Self also loved movies and movie stars. While in high school, he decided to take up acting. In 1938, he appeared in Roosevelt High's Junior Class play, and in 1939 he was cast in the leading role of the Senior Class play, "The Eyes of Tlaloc" by Agnes Emelie Peterson. He also worked behind the scenes as electrician and stage manager. Self's drama teacher, Bertha May Johns, was a great inspiration to him, as well as to her other students.

Self gave up drama while at the University of Chicago, thinking he should devote himself to more serious pursuits. While there, he joined Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. He graduated from Chicago in 1943 with a degree in Political Science and a wife, Margaret Lucille Flynn of Spokane, Washington.

Filmography

As Actor

* "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1945) - Uncredited
* "Decoy" (1946) - Uncredited
* "Monsieur Verdoux" (1947) - Uncredited
* "A Likely Story" (1947) - Uncredited
* "Kilroy Was Here" (1947)
* "Marshal of Cripple Creek" (1947)
* "Homecoming" (1948)
* "A Foreign Affair" (1948)
* "Red River" (1948) - Credited as Billie Self
* "The Great Gatsby" (1949) - Uncredited
* "I Was a Male War Bride" (1949) - Uncredited
* "Father Was a Fullback" (1949) - Uncredited
* "Battleground" (1949) - Uncredited
* "Adam's Rib" (1949) - Uncredited
* "Sands of Iwo Jima" (1949)
* "Malaya" (1949) - Uncredited
* "A Ticket to Tomahawk" (1950) - Uncredited
* "Three Secrets" (1950) - Uncredited
* "Breakthrough" (1950) - Uncredited
* "Operation Pacific" (1951) - Uncredited
* "The Thing from Another World" (1951)
* "The People Against O'Hara" (1951)
* "Deadline - U.S.A." (1952) - Uncredited
* "Pat and Mike" (1952)
* "Washington Story" (1952) - Uncredited
* "The Big Sky" (1952) - Uncredited
* "Plymouth Adventure" (1952) - Uncredited
* "Battle Circus" (1953) - Uncredited

As film Producer

* "Ride the High Iron" - (1956)
* "The Shootist" - (1975)
* "From Noon Till Three" - (1976)

As Television Producer

* "Schlitz Playhouse of Stars" (208 episodes between 1953 and 1956)
* "The Frank Sinatra Show (ABC)" (1957 and 1958)
* "Adventures in Paradise" (3 episodes in 1960 and 1961)
* "State Fair" (1976)
* "The Tenth Man" (1988)
* "Sarah, Plain and Tall" (1991)
* "Skylark" (1993)
* "" (1999)
* "Time Tunnel Series " (1966+)

As Director

* "The Secret" (1954: Season 4, Episode 1 of "The Schiltz Playhouse of Stars")
* "The Last Out" (1955: Season 5, Episode 1 of "The Schiltz Playhouse of Stars")
* "The Careless Cadet" (1955: Season 5, Episode 9 of "The Schiltz Playhouse of Stars")
* "The Night They Won the Oscar" (1956: Season 6, Episode 7 of "The Schiltz Playhouse of Stars")

References

Notes

External links

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* [http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=william+self interviews on Google Video]