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The Illustrated Guide to I Spy
 I Spy Director Earl Bellamy
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1917 - 2003
Earl Bellamy was a prolific television director who amassed a diverse list of more than 1,600 episode credits ranging from "The Lone Ranger" to "Leave It to Beaver" and from "I Spy" to "MASH."
Beginning as a messenger boy at Columbia Pictures in 1935, Earl Bellamy launched his more than three decades as a director with "Seminole Uprising," a 1955 Columbia western starring George Montgomery.
He directed about 20 feature films, including the westerns "Blackjack Ketchum, Desperado," "Incident at Phantom Hill" and the Tony Randall comedy "Fluffy."
However, as Earl Bellamy once said, "I got hooked on television," and it was in TV that he launched a career as one of the most respected and sought-after directors in the medium.
The 1950s and early '60s were known for the proliferation of TV
westerns, and he directed many of them, including "The Adventures
of Rin Tin Tin," "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon," "Wagon Train," "Rawhide," "Daniel Boone" and "The Virginian."
As a result, in 2002, he received a Golden Boot Award from the Motion Picture and Television Fund for his contributions to the western film genre.
But Earl Bellamy was equally at home with such diverse fare as "The Donna Reed Show," "Bachelor Father," "Lassie," "Perry Mason," "The Andy
Griffith Show," "The Munsters," "The Mod Squad," "Fantasy Island," "The Love Boat," "Eight Is Enough," "CHIPS" and "Starsky and Hutch."
Boyd Magers, a friend of Earl Bellamy's, and publisher of Western Clippings (a western film publication), stated, “he did a lot of everything; he was a workhorse. But to me, the important thing about Earl was his irrepressible spirit. It rubbed off on everybody that he knew and came into contact with."
Earl Bellamy's on-set motto as a director was "No strain." He used to say, "I have always respected the actors I've worked with and, as a director, I wanted to keep them relaxed,"
in an interview with the Albuquerque Journal in 2002, he maintained, "if someone flubbed their lines, no strain. Everyone I've worked with has appreciated it."
Ernest Borgnine, who worked with Bellamy on the 1960s hit comedy series "McHale's Navy" remembered Bellamy's "no strain" approach when he said, "it was wonderful working with him because he made everything so enjoyable,"
He added, when you worked with him, there was plenty of laughter all the time."
Robert Wagner, whom Earl Bellamy directed in the series "Hart to Hart"
remembered another Bellamy catch-phrase. "He used to have one wonderful saying, and that was when you finished a shot. He'd say, 'First rate' -- and that's what he was,"
The son of a railroad engineer, Earl Bellamy was born March 11, 1917, in Minneapolis. The family moved to Hollywood in 1920 and his father
got a job running the steam engine that powered the Gaylord Hotel in Los Angeles.
After graduating from Hollywood High School in 1935, Earl Bellamy landed a job as a messenger at Columbia Studios. "I was there a week and knew
what I wanted to do," he affirmed.
He worked his way up to production clerk and, in 1939, became a second
assistant director on "Blondie Takes a Vacation."
He attended college night courses studying drama, but never intending to become an actor, only to give him "a better rapport with actors."
By the early 1940s, he had become assistant director on films such as George Stevens' "The Talk of the Town," starring Cary Grant and Jean Arthur. He was working on the Shirley Temple film "Kiss and Tell" when he was drafted in early 1945 and assigned to a Navy photographic unit that turned out training films.
"I really enjoyed it," he recalled. "I had a lieutenant who was a great officer but knew absolutely nothing about making movies, so I had quite a bit of creative control."
Returning to Hollywood in 1946, he worked as assistant to such directors
as George Cukor ("Born Yesterday," "It Should Happen to You" and "A Star Is Born") and Fred Zinnemann ("From Here to Eternity," for which Bellamy received a Directors Guild Award for his work).
It was while working with Cukor that Bellamy learned that "everybody has something to contribute -- even the guy who sweeps the stage."
He always took time to listen to any suggestions, remembering that Cukor one time used a suggestion which turned into a very funny moment. In 'It Should Happen to You. He explained, ' there's a scene where Peter Lawford was about to kiss Judy Holliday. 'Just a minute,' said Judy as she removed her earrings. 'Now!' It had been a prop man's idea to take off the jewelry.
As a director, Earl Bellamy reveled in the hectic pace of early series
television. "The interesting thing about television was that, in those days, you had six days to put together an hour long show and three days for a half-hour show. It was possible to do two shows a week."
Read a tribute to Earl Bellamy at www.wildestwesterns.com/no_8/earl_bellamy_tom...
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Get all episodes from
I Spy Season 1
I Spy Season 2
I Spy Season 3
Read the I Spy Book
Film Score Monthly has released an album of five “I Spy” scores
by Earle Hagen on CD.
 Direct from the soundtracks of "So Long, Patrick Henry" - "A Time of the Knife" - "Turkish Delight," - "The Warlord" - "Mainly on the Plains" along with a 24-page booklet of liner notes and photos and foreword by Robert Culp It'
Buyt it through Amazon
Earle Hagen, composer of the music from “I Spy” has now published his autobiography
"Memoirs of a Famous Composer - Nobody Ever Heard Of"
 Read the inside story on I Spy!
scouting locations with Sheldon Leonard - life on the I Spy set
and the rest of Earle Hagen's fascinating career in big bands, movies & TV
Buy it Now
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