- Larry Peerce
Larry Peerce (born April 19, 1930,
The Bronx ,New York City ,New York ) [http://www.filmreference.com/film/80/Larry-Peerce.html FilmReference.com: Larry Peerce] ] is an Americanfilm and TV director whose work includes the theatrical feature "Goodbye, Columbus ", the earlyrock and roll concert film "The Big T.N.T. Show ", and "One Potato, Two Potato " (1964), the first U.S. movie to portray an interracial relationship between anAfrican-American and aCaucasian .Biography
The son of operatic
tenor Jan Peerce [ [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:105958 AllMovie.com: Larry Peerce] ] andtalent agent Alice Peerce, Larry Peerce attended the University of North Carolina. [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/123991/The-Big-T-N-T-Show/overview "The New York Times": "The Big T.N.T. Show" (1966)] ] He made his directing debut with "One Potato, Two Potato ", released in 1964 by the distributorCinema V . The groundbreaking drama about an interracial marriage between a white divorcee (played byBarbara Barrie , who won the Best Actress award at the 1964Cannes Film Festival for the role) and anAfrican-American office worker (Bernie Hamilton ) was the first U.S. movie to portray such an interracial relationship.Peerce went on to direct several episodes of the Western
television series "Branded " and the campysuperhero series "Batman ", among other shows, before directing the earlyrock and roll concert film "The Big T.N.T. Show ", released in 1966 byAmerican International Pictures and featuring such performers asThe Byrds ,Ray Charles ,Bo Diddley ,Donovan ,The Lovin' Spoonful ,The Ronettes and The Ike & Tina Turner Revue.Following more TV, Peerce returned to film in 1967 with "
The Mystery of the Chinese Junk " and, more notably, the well-received crime drama "The Incident ", which gave actorsMartin Sheen andTony Musante some of their earliest movie roles. He followed this with the acclaimed "Goodbye, Columbus ", an adaptation of thePhilip Roth novel. The movie earned Peerce aDGA Award nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures, andscreenwriter Arnold Schulman anAcademy Award nomination for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.Peerce's subsequent theatrical features, including "The Sporting Club" (1971), "A Separate Peace", "Ash Wednesday" (1973), and "The Other Side of the Mountain" a.k.a. "A Window to the Sky" (1975) met with less favorable critical and commercial response. He made a
TV movie , "The Stranger Who Looks Like Me " (1974) and directed several episodes of the children's TV series "The Ghost Busters " a.k.a. "The Original Ghostbusters ", after more theatrical films that did not meet success, became a frequent director oftelevision miniseries , including "Queenie " (ABC, 1987), "The Neon Empire " (Showtime, 1988), theJacqueline Kennedy biography "A Woman Named Jackie " (NBC, 1991) and "John Jakes ' Heaven & Hell: North & South, Book III" (ABC, 1994). He additionally did several more TV movies, ending with "Second Honeymoon" (2001), starringRoma Downey andTim Matheson .He directed one episode of the 1960s CBS series "
The Wild Wild West " as "Lawrence Peerce".Peerce was married for a time to
Marilyn Hassett , who appeared in several films he directed in the mid to late 1970s.References
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