Bruce Bilson, the Emmy-winning director behind basic TV hits like “Get Smart,” “Hogan’s Heroes” and many more, has died. He was 97.
The late director’s daughter, producer Julie Bilson Ahlberg, confirmed that her father died peacefully at his home in Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 16, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Bilson, who was also the grandfather of “The O.C.” star Rachel Bilson, led an spectacular and prolific profession that spanned 5 many years and included more than 400 initiatives.
Karen Valentine and Bruce Bilson behind the scenes of the TV film “The Girl Who Came Gift-Wrapped” in 1974. ABC
Bruce Bilson and his granddaughter, “The O.C.” star Rachel Bilson, at the Kodak Theatre on March 28, 2004. Getty Images
Born in Brooklyn on May 19, 1928, Bilson’s household moved to LA in 1932 so that his father, George, could run the trailers division at Warner Bros.
The future director’s mom, Hattie, went on to write short movies at RKO when her husband moved to the studio to produce those shorts.
Bilson, meanwhile, started working as an additional at the age of 14 and later appeared in the 1944 movie “Henry Aldrich, Boy Scout.”
Bruce Bilson’s profession spanned 5 many years and included more than 400 initiatives. Getty Images
It wasn’t until 1952, and after a two-year stint in the US Air Force, that he labored for two seasons as an editor on NBC’s Groucho Marx-hosted sport show “You Bet Your Life.”
But Bilson’s massive break came a few years later when he joined Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s Desilu manufacturing company after linking up with bodily manufacturing head Argyle Nelson.
He labored on the standard sitcoms “My Favorite Husband,” “Our Miss Brooks,” “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” and, perhaps most standard of all, “I Love Lucy” and “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Karen Valentine and Bruce Bilson behind the scenes making of “The Girl Who Came Gift-Wrapped” in 1974. ABC
Robert Clary and Bob Crane in “Hogan’s Heroes.” Courtesy Everett Collection
Bilson served as assistant director on 58 installments of “The Andy Griffith Show” from its premiere in 1960 until his departure after Season 2 in 1962.
“All that life in Mayberry was my gang,” he said in 2008 regarding the show’s fictional North Carolina city. “There were a bunch of old extras that nobody used, like little old ladies. They were my stock company.”
“They would do anything for me, mow a lawn way in the back or carry shoes to the shoemaker,” Bilson added. “That was my contribution.”
Bilson’s directorial debut came in 1964 when he helmed one episode of the CBS comedy “The Baileys of Balboa” before becoming a member of “Get Smart,” which starred Don Adams and Barbara Feldon.
Cynthia Lynn and Bob Crane in “Hogan’s Heroes.” Courtesy Everett Collection
Bruce Bilson and Corbin Bernsen at the Kodak Theatre on March 28, 2004. Getty Images
He dealt with 22 episodes of the NBC hit during its first 4 seasons from 1965 through 1968, and won his only Emmy Award in 1968 for directing the episode “Maxwell Smart, Private Eye.”
After directing episodes of other basic TV reveals like “Bewitched,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Bonanza,” “Green Acres,” “M*A*S*H,” “The Brady Bunch” and “The Odd Couple,” Bilson went on to work on the last 4 seasons of “Hogan’s Heroes” from 1967 to 1971.
Years later, in Nov. 1986, Bilson had the honor of directing the ultimate episode of Lucille Ball’s last-ever sitcom: ABC’s “Life with Lucy.”
Gale Gordon, Philip J. Amelio, Jenny Lewis and Lucille Ball in “Life with Lucy” in 1986. ©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection
Besides his daughter, Julie, and granddaughter, Rachel, Bilson is survived by his son, screenwriter Danny Bilson, and his second spouse of more than 40 years, “Nancy” star Renne Jarrett, whom he married in 1984.
“When I was starting out, I thought my camera work was awful, and I tried to make it more interesting,” Bilson said in an interview 18 years before his death.
“As I got older and more experienced, I learned to tell the story with the actors first, cameras second,” he added.
