Gene Reynolds

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Gene Reynolds born Eugene Reynolds Blumenthal April 4 1923 February 3 2020 was an American actor television writer director and producer He was one of the producers of the TV series MASH Reynolds made his screen debut in the 1934 Our Gang short Washee Ironee and for the next three decades made numerous appearances in films such as In Old Chicago 1937 Captains Courageous 1937 Love Finds Andy Hardy 1938 Boys Town 1938 They Shall Have Music 1939 Santa Fe Trail 1940 Adventure in Washington 1941 Eagle Squadron 1942 and The Country Girl 1954 and on television series like I Love Lucy Armstrong Circle Theatre Whirlybirds and Hallmark Hall of Fame He was contracted to MGM between 1937 and 1940 He was in the US Army during World War II In 1957 Reynolds joined forces with Frank Gruber and James Brooks to create Tales of Wells Fargo for NBC During the programs fiveyear run he wrote and directed numerous episodes Additional directing credits include multiple episodes of Leave It to Beaver The Andy Griffith Show The Farmers Daughter My Three Sons F Troop Hogans Heroes Room 222 and Many Happy Returns As a writer director and producer Reynolds was involved with two highly successful CBS series in the 1970s and early 1980s Between 1972 and 1983 he produced 120 episodes of MASH which he cocreated with Larry Gelbart and for which he also wrote 11 episodes and directed 24 During that same period he produced 22 episodes of Lou Grant for which he wrote or cowrote five episodes and directed 11 Reynolds has been nominated for twentyfour Emmy Awards and won six times including Outstanding Comedy Series for MASH and Outstanding Drama Series twice for Lou Grant which also earned him a Humanitas Prize He won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Direction of a Comedy Series twice for his work on MASH and the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Direction of a Drama Series once for his work on Lou Grant Reynolds was elected President of the Directors Guild of America in 1993 a post he held for four years until 1997 He died on February 3 2020 at age 96