A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Birthplace:
New York City, New York, USA
Born:
December 19, 1920
Died:
February 22, 1987
David Howard Susskind (December 19, 1920 – February 22, 1987) was an American producer of TV, movies, and stage plays and also a TV talk show host. His talk shows were innovative in the genre and addressed timely, controversial topics beyond the scope of others of the day. His first job after the war was as a press agent for Warner Brothers. Next, he was a talent agent for Century Artists, ultimately ending up in the Music Corporation of America's newly minted television programming department, managing Dinah Shore, Jerry Lewis, and others. In New York, Susskind formed Talent Associates, representing creators of material rather than performers. In 1954, Susskind became a producer of the NBC legal drama Justice, based on case files of the Legal Aid Society of New York. His program Open End began in 1958 on New York City's commercial independent station WNTA-TV and was so titled because the program continued until Susskind or his guests were too tired to continue. In 1961, Open End was constrained to two hours and went into national syndication. The show was retitled The David Susskind Show for its telecast on Sunday night, October 2, 1966. In the 1960s it was the first nationally broadcast television talk show to feature people speaking out against American involvement in the Vietnam War. In the 1970s it was the first nationally broadcast television talk show to feature people speaking out for gay rights. The show continued until its New York outlet canceled it in 1986. During his close to three-decade run, Susskind covered many controversial topics of the day, such as race relations, transsexualism, and the Vietnam War. His interview with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, which aired in October 1960, during the height of the Cold War, generated national attention. It is one of the very few talk show telecasts from the era that was preserved and can be viewed today. In a now notorious interview with then 25-year-old Muhammad Ali during a recently-unearthed 1968 appearance on the British program The Eamonn Andrews Show, Susskind displayed an intense antipathy and vitriol towards the famous boxer, whom he excoriated with withering criticism for refusing to be conscripted into the U.S. military for the Vietnam War. Some commentators have described this as a racist attack. Susskind was also a noted producer, with scores of movies, plays, and TV programs to his credit. His legacy is that of a producer of intelligent material at a time when TV had left its golden years behind and had firmly planted its feet in programming which had wide appeal, whether or not it was worth watching.
Director:
1963 David Susskind Archive: Interview With Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
2020 David Susskind Archive: I Was a Hitman for the Mafia
???? David Susskind Archive: Gay Rights Pro and Con
???? David Susskind Archive: Truman Capote Tells All
???? Howard Hughes: the Watergate Connection
Executive Producer:
1955 Five in Judgement
1958 Three Plays by Tennessee Williams
1963 David Susskind Archive: Interview With Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
1967 The Desperate Hours
1968 Laura
1968 Of Mice and Men
1976 Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
1977 Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years
1977 Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye
1977 Tell Me My Name
1977 The World of Darkness
1978 Breaking Up
1978 Home to Stay
1978 Lovey: A Circle of Children, Part II
1978 The World Beyond
1978 Tom and Joann
1978 Who'll Save Our Children?
1979 Sex and the Single Parent
1979 The Family Man
1979 Transplant
1979 Walking Through the Fire
1980 Father Figure
1980 Loving Couples
1980 Mom, the Wolfman and Me
1981 Casey Stengel
1981 Crisis at Central High
1981 Fort Apache, the Bronx
1983 Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess
2020 David Susskind Archive: I Was a Hitman for the Mafia
???? David Susskind Archive: Gay Rights Pro and Con
???? David Susskind Archive: Truman Capote Tells All
???? Howard Hughes: the Watergate Connection
Producer:
1955 Five in Judgement
1957 Edge of the City
1958 The Winslow Boy
1958 Three Plays by Tennessee Williams
1959 Back to Back
1959 Medea
1959 Miracle On 34th Street
1959 The Moon and Sixpence
1960 Mrs. Miniver
1961 A Raisin in the Sun
1962 At the Drop of a Hat
1962 Hedda Gabler
1962 Requiem for a Heavyweight
1963 David Susskind Archive: Interview With Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
1963 The Power and the Glory
1965 Eagle in a Cage
1966 Death of a Salesman
1966 The Human Voice
1967 Dial M for Murder
1967 Johnny Belinda
1967 Mark Twain Tonight!
1967 The Desperate Hours
1967 The Diary of Anne Frank
1968 A Hatful of Rain
1968 Laura
1968 Of Mice and Men
1970 Lovers and Other Strangers
1971 All the Way Home
1971 The Price
1971 The Pursuit of Happiness
1972 Harvey
1972 If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band
1973 The Glass Menagerie
1974 Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
1974 The Country Girl
1975 A Moon for the Misbegotten
1976 Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
1976 Harry S. Truman: Plain Speaking
1977 Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years
1977 Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye
1977 Tell Me My Name
1977 The World of Darkness
1978 Breaking Up
1978 Home to Stay
1978 Lovey: A Circle of Children, Part II
1978 The World Beyond
1978 Tom and Joann
1978 Who'll Save Our Children?
1979 Sex and the Single Parent
1979 The Family Man
1979 Transplant
1979 Walking Through the Fire
1980 Father Figure
1980 Loving Couples
1980 Mom, the Wolfman and Me
1980 The Plutonium Incident
1981 Casey Stengel
1981 Crisis at Central High
1981 Fort Apache, the Bronx
1981 The Bunker
1983 Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess
2020 David Susskind Archive: I Was a Hitman for the Mafia
???? David Susskind Archive: Gay Rights Pro and Con
???? David Susskind Archive: Truman Capote Tells All
???? Howard Hughes: the Watergate Connection
Creator:
1967 N.Y.P.D.
Executive Producer:
1951 Hallmark Hall of Fame
1967 N.Y.P.D.
1976 Eleanor and Franklin
1979 Blind Ambition
Producer:
1950 Armstrong Circle Theatre
1951 Hallmark Hall of Fame
1957 DuPont Show of the Month
1959 Play of the Week
1959 Too Young to Go Steady
1963 East Side/West Side
1964 Mr. Broadway
1966 CBS Playhouse
1967 N.Y.P.D.
1976 Alice
1976 Eleanor and Franklin
1977 On Our Own
1979 Blind Ambition
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.