Harvey Hart

Harvey Hart
Born(1928-03-19)March 19, 1928
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
DiedNovember 22, 1989(1989-11-22) (aged 61)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
EducationUniversity of Toronto
Dramatic Workshop
OccupationsFilm director
Television director
Television producer
Years active1952–1989

Harvey Hart (March 19, 1928 – November 22, 1989) was a Canadian television and film director and a television producer.[1]

Career

A University of Toronto alumnus, class of 1949, Hart soon set his sights on a career in television. That decision, coupled with the fact that Canada was, as yet, still in its pre-television era, dictated his next move, from Canada's biggest city to its U.S. counterpart, where Hart supported himself as an Arthur Murray Studio dance instructor while attending Erwin Piscator's New School-affiliated Dramatic Workshop.[2]

Returning in 1952, Hart was promptly hired by the CBC,[2] for whom he created over 30 television productions, among them several episodes of an anthology series, Festival, like Home of the Brave (1961) and The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1961), respective adaptations of the like-named 1946 play and 1960 novel. In October 1959, Hart produced the North American television premiere of Arthur Miller's The Crucible for the series Startime, starring Leslie Nielsen as John Proctor.[3]

In 1963 he left the CBC and moved to the United States, where, in the following years, he directed episodes for TV series such as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Star Trek, as well as theatrical features, including Bus Riley's Back in Town (1965) and The Sweet Ride (1968).[4]

He moved back to Toronto in 1970 where he directed several feature films, including Fortune and Men's Eyes (1971), The Pyx (1973), Shoot (1976) and Goldenrod (1976), for which he won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director.[5] In the mid 1970s Hart directed four episodes of Columbo: By Dawn's Early Light (1974), A Deadly State of Mind (1975), Forgotten Lady (1975), and Now You See Him (1976).

He continued splitting his time between film work in Canada and television work in Los Angeles throughout the 1980s. He received a Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film for the mini-series East of Eden (1981)[6] and a Gemini Award for Best Direction in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series for the television crime-drama film Passion and Paradise (1989).

Personal life and death

Hart was married to Katherine, with whom he had three children, two daughters and one son.[7]

On November 22, 1989, Hart died of a heart attack at Toronto General Hospital, at age 61.[8] survived by his wife, children, and three step-siblings. Hart's remains are interred in the Pride of Israel section of Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Toronto.[7]

Selected filmography

ber 22, 1989*East of Eden (1981) (TV miniseries)

References

  1. ^ "Harvey Hart Biography - Film Reference".
  2. ^ a b Lanken, Dane (February 6, 1971). "Director Harvey Hart - A Fortune for an apostle". The Montreal Gazette. p. 38. Retrieved March 20, 2026. "Hart is certainly one to know about the early days of television. After graduating from the University of Toronto, he decided he wanted to be a television director. The only problem was that in those days, around 1949, there was no television in Canada. So Hart went down to New York, studied at the Dramatic Workshop, supported himself as an Arthur Murray dancing instructor, and waited for Canadian TV to be born. When it was, he was one of the original "Twelve Apostles" who formed the nucleus of the CBC's production crew."
  3. ^ "Miller's Crucible to Feature Nielsen". The Montreal Gazette. October 24, 1959. p. 29. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  4. ^ Rist, Peter Harry (2001). "Harvey Hart", in Guide to the Cinema(s) of Canada. Edited by Rist. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313299315. pp. 91-92.
  5. ^ "Harvey Hart - Canadian Film Encyclopedia". Archived from the original on 2012-10-06.
  6. ^ "Harvey Hart". Oakland Tribune. Oakland, CA. November 24, 1989. p. 51. Retrieved April 20, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b "Birth and Death Notices: Hart, Harvey". The Globe and Mail. November 23, 1989. p. A27. Retrieved March 19, 2026. "On Wednesday, November 22, 1989 at Toronto General Hospital. Harvey, beloved husband of Katherine. Loving father and father-in-law of Anne Hart, Bethelene Hart Young, and Mathew and Nola Hart. Beloved son of Anita Applebaum [sic]. Devoted grandfather of Benjamin, Rebecca, Sarah and Emily. Also survived by Selina Lynn, Shelley and Lon Appleby. Interment [sic]"
  8. ^ Downey, Donn (November 23, 1989). "OBITUARY: Harvey Hart – Director had diverse career". The Globe and Mail. p. A27.

Futher reading

  • "Rehearsal". The Montreal Gazette. December 5, 1959. p. 30. Retrieved March 19, 2026. "Producer Harvey Hart, right, gives Diana Maddox, Oscar Homolka ands Roy Wordsworth a briefing at rehearsal for The Secret Agents, in which they will featured on Canadian Startime, Tuesday night on CBC TV. The play was adapted from a Joseph Conrad novel of suspense and intrigue. The production originates in Toronto."
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.