Joseph Sargent was an award-winning director who worked in television and film for more than 50 years. He achieved particular renown for his powerful work in several acclaimed made-for-TV movies.
Born Giusseppe Daneiele Sorgente in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1925, he volunteered for World War II while still in his teens and served in Europe. Afterward, he moved to New York to pursue a career as a performer. He studied at the Actors’ Studio, and went on to appear in a number of television series, including Death Valley Days, The Lone Ranger and Tales of Wells Fargo.
Joseph Sargent was an award-winning director who worked in television and film for more than 50 years. He achieved particular renown for his powerful work in several acclaimed made-for-TV movies.
Born Giusseppe Daneiele Sorgente in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1925, he volunteered for World War II while still in his teens and served in Europe. Afterward, he moved to New York to pursue a career as a performer. He studied at the Actors’ Studio, and went on to appear in a number of television series, including Death Valley Days, The Lone Ranger and Tales of Wells Fargo.
In the early 1960s he broke into directing with episodes of such programs as Lassie, Gunsmoke and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He went on to direct dozens of other shows, including Star Trek, The Fugitive and It Takes a Thief, and won the first of his four Emmy Awards in 1973, for The Marcus-Nelson Murders, a telefilm that served as the the pilot episode of the cop drama Kojak, starring Telly Savalas.
He won his other Emmys for telefilms as well: Love Is Never Silent (1985), Caroline? (1990) and Miss Rose White (1992).
Among directors of TV movies, particularly those based on historical events, he had few rivals. His other notable credits in the genre included Hustling, The Karen Carpenter Story, The Incident, Miss Evers’ Boys, Something the Lord Made and Warm Springs.
Sargent was nominated for eight DGA Awards for movies for television, more than any other director in the category.
He also directed a number of feature films, including The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, MacArthur and Jaws: The Revenge.
In addition to his work as a director, Sargent worked for many years as a teacher. He was the senior filmmaker-in-residence for the directing program at L.A.'s American Film Institute Conservatory and was the first professor of a masters program in film directing at Pepperdine University in Malibu.
Sargent died December 22, 2014. He was 89.