Delbert Mann: Biography

Delbert Mann led a peripatetic existence as salesman, bomber pilot and theatrical director before getting in on the ground floor of live television. His handling of the original Goodyear Playhouse production of Marty led to Mann's being engaged for the Oscar-winning film version of that classic Paddy Chayefsky teleplay. Likewise, Mann's work on the TV version of Chayefsky's The Bachelor Party guaranteed that he'd been engaged to direct the 1957 filmization. Mann's subsequent theatrical film work included such hits as Separate Tables (1958), Lover Come Back (1961) and That Touch of Mink (1962). His movie career faltered in the late 1960s, compelling Mann to return to television, where he directed such superior literary adaptations as David Copperfield (1970), Jane Eyre (1971), All Quiet on the Western Front (1979), and such ratings-grabbing efforts as A Death in California (1984), The Last Days of Patton (1986) and The Ted Kennedy Jr. Story (1986). Though Delbert Mann won an Oscar for Marty, he has curiously never been honored with an Emmy for his extensive TV work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide