Jack Shea, 84, three-time president of Directors Guild of America, directed ‘The Jeffersons,’ ‘Silver Spoons’
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS April 30, 2013 7:04PM
LOUIS GIBBS Left to right, Florence (Marla Gibbs George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley) and his wife Louise (Isabel Sanford) discuss the prospect of giving an underprivileged child a home for a week, on "The Jeffersons SUNDAY, DEC. 30 (9:30-10:00 PM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.
Updated: May 1, 2013 2:25AM
LOS ANGELES — Jack Shea, who directed “The Jeffersons” and other TV hits and was a three-time president of the Directors Guild of America, has died at age 84.
He died Sunday in Los Angeles from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
During a four-decade career, Mr. Shea directed hundreds of episodes for shows such as “Silver Spoons” and “Sanford & Son,” along with many Bob Hope specials.
He was president of the Directors Guild from 1997 to 2002. Current President Taylor Hackford says Mr. Shea worked to bring women and minorities into guild service.
In 1999, Mr. Shea and the DGA board renamed the guild’s D.W. Griffith Award as the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award. The guild said that Griffith’s classic film, “Birth of a Nation,” glorified the Ku Klux Klan and fostered racial stereotypes.
AP
