David J. Eagle

David J. Eagle is an award-winning television director, producer and screenwriter, best known for his direction of 13 episodes of the science fiction series, Babylon 5 including "Severed Dreams", which won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation,^[1][2] and the CBS Schoolbreak Special, "Kids Killing Kids" for which he received the Outstanding Children's Program Emmy Award as writer, director and producer.

Born in Staten Island, New York on January 31, 1954, Eagle grew up first in Elizabeth, New Jersey (1954–1959), then moved to Edgewater, New Jersey (1959–1963) when his dad, Norman Eagle, became the school psychologist for the Fort Lee Public Schools. His mom, Betty Eagle, was at that time an elementary school teacher in Rutherford, NJ. In 1963, the family (brothers Jeremy born 1955 and Harry born 1957) moved to Englewood, New Jersey after it was announced that the public schools were going to be integrated. David's parents thought it would be a good idea for their children to grow up in a town that was ethnically and culturally diverse. David and his brothers spent most of their formative years there in Englewood.

Moved and inspired by the civil rights and peace movements, David became a student activist during the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s. He volunteered as a youth coordinator for Eugene McCarthy's bid for President in 1968. A few years later, as a high school Draft Counselor, he worked with young draft age men at Dwight Morrow High School as well as at other nearby schools and after school and weekends at a non-profit organization in Teaneck, NJ called The Peace Center (he later served on the board of that organization along with actor Alan Alda), providing information and counsel about the draft and conscientious objection to war. On several occasions, he actually boarded the buses that took young men to their Army inductions in Hackensack and provided last minute draft counseling. Several young men took his advice and when the buses arrived at the induction center, they left with David who assisted them with deferments and other advice that relieved them of their draft obligations. Once discovered by the authorities, he was banned from the buses. During those years, David also led several student protests and walk-outs from school and organized bus trips to major anti-war demonstrations in New York City and Washington, DC in 1969 and 1970.

It was in 1970 that David met Danny Bennett, the oldest son of singer Tony Bennett. The two hit it off from the start. They had everything in common - interested in the same music, big Beatles fans, intellectual equals, a strong feeling about peace activism...and their birthdays were just a few days apart. Before long, they were both organizing peace rallies and related activities.

During Spring Break from Dwight Morrow High School in 1972, 18 year old David explored running for the office of Bergen County Sheriff. His Dad, then a Democratic County Committeeman, returned from a meeting in which the long time conservative, but democratic party member, Sheriff Joe Job announced he was switching parties because he didn't want to be associated with the liberal, anti-war democratic candidate for President, George McGovern. David's Dad suggested that David run to help get out the youth vote for McGovern. (The voting age had just been changed to 18 in 1972) Thinking it was a great idea, David called Danny Bennett who immediately joined on as David's campaign manager. The two young men, along with a developing entourage, traveled around the county to high schools and colleges to asses the interest and support David could get from new, young voters. After about 9 days of "campaigning" and gathering the needed signatures on the paper work to file for his candidacy with the county clerk, David received a chilling phone call from the Chairman of the New Jersey McGovern Campaign. The Chairman told David that they were concerned that if he ran against the very popular Sheriff Joe Job, they were afraid that many conservative voters, who normally wouldn't bother to come out to vote because they were used to Job wining year after year, that they would now come out to vote for him and while they were in the voting booth, they would vote against McGovern. He told David that if McGovern lost in New Jersey, that loss would be on David's head! David conferred with Danny and the entourage of friends and he decided that he couldn't have that responsibility held over him if McGovern lost in New Jersey, so he decided not to file his candidacy papers and petitions. Needless to say, McGovern lost in New Jersey even though David didn't run. Who knows, perhaps McGovern might have received many more youth votes if David had run. Maybe he might have won New Jersey!

David graduated with honors from Dwight Morrow High School in June of 1972 and was awarded the Peace Award from the Englewood Peace Committee.

He attended SUNY at Stony Brook in the fall of 1972 (now Stony Brook University), graduating with honors in history and film production in 1977. It was there that he met local NY children's TV host, Sonny Fox and became his "assistant" when Sonny taught a few courses on Television at Stony Brook. Shortly thereafter, he drove out to Los Angeles and with the help of Mr. Fox, got his first job in the TV and Film industry with Alan Landsberg Productions. He was first hired as the researcher on the syndicated documentary TV series called Between The Wars with Eric Sevaried. After traveling around the country, researching rare photos and film for the series, he quickly worked his way up to Assistant to Producer Tony Potter and then Series Associate Producer. After that, David worked on National Geographic Specials and NBC White Paper Specials, also with Tony Potter. Then in 1979, his old friend, Sonny Fox, moved out to California and created his own production company. Sonny needed someone to help create and develop projects so he hired David as his Director of Development & Production.

References

1. ^ "The Hugo Awards By Year". World Science Fiction Society. 2006. http://www.worldcon.org/hy.html. 
2. ^ "1997 Hugo Award Nominations". 1997. http://dpsinfo.com/awardweb/hugos/1997.html. 

External links

• David J. Eagle at the Internet Movie Database

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