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George McCowan is a Director and Writer Canadien born on 27 june 1927
George McCowan (June 27, 1927 – November 1, 1995) was a Canadian film (mostly TV movies) and TV director in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
McCowan began his career working for the Canadian Broadcasting Company. He moved to the United States from Canada in 1967 and stayed there.
He is most notable for directing seven episodes of Charlie's Angels, directing episodes of S.W.A.T. directing episodes of Starsky and Hutch and directing every episode of the popular Canadian series Seeing Things. He worked more often with such shows as The Streets of San Francisco, Fantasy Island, and Hart to Hart. McCowan directed the 1970 TV movie Carter's Army, 1971 Canadian hockey film Face-Off, the 1972 film The Magnificent Seven Ride!, the 1972 horror film Frogs, and the 1976 film Shadow of the Hawk.
McCowan also directed the film H. G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come and the 1970 television war movie, The Challenge, but for the latter he chose to be credited as Alan Smithee.
McCowan died in 1995 in Santa Monica, California.
Il a été marié à l'actrice Frances Hyland de 1955 à 1964.
Source : Wikidata
George McCowan
McCowan began his career working for the Canadian Broadcasting Company. He moved to the United States from Canada in 1967 and stayed there.
He is most notable for directing seven episodes of Charlie's Angels, directing episodes of S.W.A.T. directing episodes of Starsky and Hutch and directing every episode of the popular Canadian series Seeing Things. He worked more often with such shows as The Streets of San Francisco, Fantasy Island, and Hart to Hart. McCowan directed the 1970 TV movie Carter's Army, 1971 Canadian hockey film Face-Off, the 1972 film The Magnificent Seven Ride!, the 1972 horror film Frogs, and the 1976 film Shadow of the Hawk.
McCowan also directed the film H. G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come and the 1970 television war movie, The Challenge, but for the latter he chose to be credited as Alan Smithee.
McCowan died in 1995 in Santa Monica, California.
Biography
Après avoir commencé sa carrière dans son pays natal, George McCowan s'installe aux États-Unis en 1967. Il fait l'essentiel de sa carrière à la télévision, pour laquelle il réalise de nombreux épisodes de série comme Section 4, Drôles de dames ou Starsky et Hutch. Au cinéma, il réalise notamment le western La Chevauchée des sept mercenaires, sorti en 1972, et le film de science-fiction Alerte dans le cosmos, sorti en 1979.Il a été marié à l'actrice Frances Hyland de 1955 à 1964.
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Filmography of George McCowan (12 films)
Director
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The Shape of Things to Come (1979)
, 1h38Directed by George McCowan
Origin Canada
Genres Science fiction
Actors Jack Palance, Carol Lynley, Barry Morse, John Ireland, Nicholas Campbell, Anne-Marie Martin
Rating32%
Après des années de guerre des robots, la Terre retrouve son calme mais n'est plus qu'un grand champ de ruines. Les survivants sont contraints de se réfugier sur la lune. Alors qu'elle a à peine immigré, la communauté doit faire face au tyran Omus et à son armée de droïdes qui veulent éradiquer définitivement la race humaine...
The Shape of Things to Come (1979)
, 1h38Directed by George McCowan
Origin Canada
Genres Science fiction, Adventure
Themes Space adventure films, Post-apocalyptic films, Films about religion, Films set in the future, Political films, Dystopian films, Space opera, Disaster films
Actors Jack Palance, Carol Lynley, Barry Morse, John Ireland, Nicholas Campbell, Anne-Marie Martin
Rating32%
Sometime in the future, Earth is recovering from "The Robot Wars" that devastated the planet seven years earlier. Most of humanity now lives on the Moon within a domed city called New Washington, but their survival depends on an anti-radiation drug called Raddic-Q2 which is manufactured on the distant planet Delta 3.
Directed by George McCowan
Genres Comedy
Themes Buddy films
Actors Joan Collins, Paul Michael Glaser, David Soul, Samantha Eggar
Rating64%
Starsky and Hutch investigate a series of murders among the delegates for a convention, which takes place on a tropical island.
Shadow of the Hawk (1976)
, 1h32Directed by George McCowan, Daryl Duke
Origin USA
Genres Adventure, Horror
Actors Jan-Michael Vincent, Marilyn Hassett, Chief Dan George
Rating55%
An old Native American Shaman trains his sceptical grandson to take over for him as the new tribal “Medicine Man” of his small village. Along the way, they battle the Shaman’s enemies, and their black magic.
Murder on Flight 502 (1975)
, 1h37Directed by George McCowan
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action
Themes Transport films, Aviation films, Dans un avion, Disaster films, American disaster films, Films about aviation accidents or incidents
Actors Ralph Bellamy, Polly Bergen, Theodore Bikel, Sonny Bono, Dane Clark, Laraine Day
Rating53%
Flight 502 takes off from New York City to London. At the airport, a fake bomb threat leads to Head of Security Robert Davenport (George Maharis) finding a letter he would not have received until the next morning. The letter explains a series of murders will take place on Flight 502 before it lands. He and his team go over the backgrounds of all the passengers to find possible suspects. In the air, Captain Larkin (Robert Stack), off duty Police Officer Daniel Myerson (Hugh O'Brian), and flight attendant Karen White (Farrah Fawcett-Majors) look for suspicious passengers. Relationships develop on board between elderly singles Charlie Parkins (Walter Pidgeon) and Ida Goldman (Molly Picon), rock star Jack Marshall (Sonny Bono) and Dorothy Saunders (Rosemarie Stack), and mystery writer Mona Briarly (Polly Bergen) and suave passenger Paul Barons (Fernando Lamas). Briarly suspects Barons is actually a criminal who got away with stealing seven million dollars from a bank, but Barons denies it.
The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)
, 1h40Directed by George McCowan
Origin USA
Genres Action, Western
Actors Lee Van Cleef, Stefanie Powers, Michael Callan, Luke Askew, Ralph Waite, Mariette Hartley
Rating55%
In southern Arizona territory, former hired gun-turned-marshal Chris Adams rescues his old friend, former bounty hunter Jim Mackay from an ambush. After recovering from his long ride across the desert, Jim asks Chris to help him defend the small Mexican border town of Magdalena, which has come under constant attack by bandit De Toro and his men. Having recently married and assumed his job as marshal, however, Chris is reluctant to assist Jim, despite their long friendship.
Frogs (1972)
, 1h31Directed by George McCowan
Origin USA
Genres Horror
Themes Films about animals, Environmental films, Natural horror films, Reptile
Actors Ray Milland, Sam Elliott, Joan Van Ark, Adam Roarke, Judy Pace, Lynn Borden
Rating44%
Wildlife photographer Pickett Smith (Sam Elliott) is taking photographs of the local flora and fauna as he canoes through a swamp surrounding an island upon which the affluent mansion estate of the wealthy and influential Crockett family is located. Also evident throughout the swamp are numerous indicators of pollution, which Pickett believes are connected to the pesticides the Crockett's use on their island plantation. After Clint (Adam Roarke) accidentally tips over Smith's canoe, he and his sister Karen (Joan Van Ark) escort Smith to the family mansion, where he meets the entire Crockett family. The grouchy, wheelchair-bound patriarch, Jason (Ray Milland), intends on spending the next day enjoying both the 4th of July and his own birthday celebrations uninterrupted. Due to the mutual dislike of the fauna around the mansion, Jason has sent a man named Grover to spray pesticide in order to get rid of the amphibians. Pickett later discovers Grover's corpse covered in snake bites in the swamp not far from the house. Despite this warning, Jason continues with his celebrations the next day.
Face-Off (1971)
, 1h45Directed by George McCowan
Origin Canada
Genres Drama, Action, Romance
Themes Sports films, Ice hockey films
Actors Art Hindle, Trudy Young, John Vernon, Sean Sullivan, Susan Douglas Rubes
Rating54%
Hockey player Billy Duke (Art Hindle) joins the Toronto Maple Leafs, and must adapt to the major league with assistance from his room-mate (George Armstrong, a Leafs player portraying himself). Meanwhile, Duke is involved in a relationship with rock singer Sherri Lee Nelson (Trudy Young) who objects to Duke's often rough hockey playing.
The Challenge (1970)
, 1h14Directed by George McCowan
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, Political films
Actors Darren McGavin, Mako Iwamatsu, Broderick Crawford, James Whitmore, Skip Homeier, Paul Lukas
Rating68%
An American space satellite lands in an uninhabited area of the Pacific. To resolve a dispute over its possession that threatens to escalate into all-out war, the United States and an unnamed Asian country agree to settle the matter with a duel to the death between two champions on a deserted tropical island. As Vietnam veteran Jacob Gallery Darren McGavin (armed with two Madsen M-50 9mm submachine guns placed side by side) and Yuro (Mako) stalk each other, a bond of respect forms between them.
The Sixth Column (1970)
, 1h14Directed by George McCowan
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction
Actors Lloyd Bridges, Angie Dickinson, Harry Basch, Daniel J. Travanti, Byron Foulger, Pepper Martin
Rating63%
Two warring planets choose to settle their conflict over which of them will take over the planet Earth, each sending a trio of soldiers to Earth to fight to the death. The combatants, disguised as human beings, can only identify each other by using special visors.
Carter's Army (1970)
, 1h10Directed by George McCowan
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Thriller, Action, Adventure
Themes Political films
Actors Stephen Boyd, Robert Hooks, Susan Oliver, Moses Gunn, Richard Pryor, Glynn Turman
Rating52%
A redneck officer (Stephen Boyd) is put in charge of a squad of all black troops charged with the mission of securing an important hydro dam in Nazi Germany. Their failure would delay the Allied advance into Germany, thus prolonging the war. These African-Americans had been relegated to cleaning latrines and therefore have little real military training, but Captain Beau Carter has no choice. He leads the rag-tag unit to secure the dam and the men reveal themselves as heroic.
The Ballad of Andy Crocker (1969)
, 1h14Directed by George McCowan
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Political films
Actors Lee Majors, Joey Heatherton, Jimmy Dean, Agnes Moorehead, Pat Hingle, Marvin Gaye
Rating57%
Lee Majors, in his first lead acting role, stars as Andy Crocker, a soldier who is wounded in a firefight in Vietnam and awarded the Purple Heart. After leaving his best friend David (Marvin Gaye), he meets a young hippie girl (Jill Haworth) who invites him to a party. The men at the party (Peter Haskell, Stuart Margolin) do not want him present; Crocker leaves and returns their hospitality by stealing one of their motorcycles that he rides home to Dallas, Texas where he reunites with his parents (played by Pat Hingle and Claudia Bryar). Crocker says that all that kept him going during the trials of Vietnam was his dreams of running a motorcycle racing track and repair shop and marrying his sweetheart, Lisa (Joey Heatherton).
Scriptwriter
The Challenge (1970)
, 1h14Directed by George McCowan
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, Political films
Actors Darren McGavin, Mako Iwamatsu, Broderick Crawford, James Whitmore, Skip Homeier, Paul Lukas
Roles Writer
Rating68%
An American space satellite lands in an uninhabited area of the Pacific. To resolve a dispute over its possession that threatens to escalate into all-out war, the United States and an unnamed Asian country agree to settle the matter with a duel to the death between two champions on a deserted tropical island. As Vietnam veteran Jacob Gallery Darren McGavin (armed with two Madsen M-50 9mm submachine guns placed side by side) and Yuro (Mako) stalk each other, a bond of respect forms between them.