David Susskind

David Susskind

Nacimiento : 1920-12-19, New York City, New York, USA

Muerte : 1987-02-22

Historia

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.

Perfil

David Susskind

Películas

Los Juicios de Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali ha sido una de las mayores leyendas que ha dado el mundo del boxeo. Con tan solo 18 años se convirtió en campeón olímpico en los Juegos de Roma de 1960. Cuatro años después, ya como profesional, se proclamó por primera vez campeón mundial de los grandes pesos. Perdió su corona cuando se negó a combatir en Vietnam y durante más de tres años no pudo subirse a los cuadriláteros. Volvió al ring en 1970 y recuperó su cetro en una mítica pelea contra George Foreman celebrada en Kinshasa, la capital de Zaire, el 30 de octubre de 1974. Fue derrotado en 1975 pero ese mismo año volvió a erigirse, por tercera vez, en campeón mundial. Pero Muhammad Ali no ha sido solamente un gran deportista, también fue un luchador incansable por los derechos de la población negra combatiendo la discriminación racial durante los años sesenta. (FILMAFFINITY)
The David Susskind Show: Give 'em Hell Harry
himself
In 1961, David Susskind conducted a series of interviews with former President Harry Truman in Truman's hometown of Independence, Missouri. After picking Truman up at his home to take him to the Truman Presidential Library for the interviews over a number of days.
Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess
Executive Producer
The life and times of silverscreen goddess Rita Hayworth.
Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess
Producer
The life and times of silverscreen goddess Rita Hayworth.
Casey Stengel
Executive Producer
Charles Durning appears as the legendary baseball manager Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel in this one-man show presented before a live studio audience.
El bunker
Producer
Narra los últimos días del dictador Adolf Hitler y de su entorno en mayo de 1945 en su búnker en Berlín, así como el clima de demencia que reinaba en el Bunker en esas últimas horas de muchos de sus habitantes. Hitler, hombre senil que pasa de la tranquilidad a una violencia extrema, no admite su derrota.
Distrito apache: El Bronx
Executive Producer
El barrio neoyorquino de South Bronx está considerado como el peor de todos por la policía de la ciudad. En su centro se alza una comisaría conocida como "Fort Apache" por su parecido con un puesto avanzado en pleno territorio enemigo. Uno de los agentes destinados a este lugar es Murphy, un gato viejo que no es lo que parece.
Crisis at Central High
Executive Producer
The historic federal-state controversy over the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, as seen through the eyes of Elizabeth Huckaby, one of the teachers and girls' vice principal.
Father Figure
Executive Producer
Following their parents' divorce and their mother's subsequent suicide, a teenager and his younger brother are resentful of having to live with the father from whom they have long been estranged, and the struggle to reestablish a relationship is explored.
Cambio de esposas
Executive Producer
Los viejos valores y la nueva moralidad chocan frontalmente en esta comedia. Sátira cómica sobre asuntos y enredos amorosos.
Mom, the Wolfman and Me
Executive Producer
Concerned that her feminist mom Deborah is going to stay single, Jenny Bergman plays matchmaker. She arranges a date between mom and unemployed Theo Marker, Irish Wolfhound owner, doing everything to get keep them together.
Simon
Himself
A group of scientists take Simon, a psychology professor, as a test person for a brainwash experiment. After that they try to convince him that he was a living-being from another planet.
The Family Man
Executive Producer
A happily married family man, owner of a parking garage in Manhattan, drifts into a romance with one of his customers who has been having troubles with her lover.
Sex and the Single Parent
Executive Producer
Two attractive divorcees find that their newly realized independence continues to be guided by their respective parental obligations.
Walking Through the Fire
Executive Producer
A young wife discovers that she has Hodgkin's Disease. It can be treated, but complicating the situation is the fact that she is pregnant, and the treatment can endanger the life of her unborn baby, as well as herself.
Transplant
Executive Producer
Fact-based story about a hard-driving young executive who rebels against his failing heart and undergoes a risky transplant.
Who'll Save Our Children?
Executive Producer
A childless couple provide shelter for a pair of homeless children. When they try to adopt them the natural parents appear leading to the inevitable court battle.
Lovey: A Circle of Children, Part II
Executive Producer
A sequel to "A Circle of Children" (1977). A teacher of "emotionally disturbed" children takes on a new student who is considered to be "untrainable" by public school authorities, psychiatrists, and medical doctors. Even the child's own mother, who is very loving, does not have the tools to reach her "hopeless" child. This is the further story of a teacher who understood what it was like to be eight years old and hurt and angry and confused; a teacher who saw these children for who they were, rather than who they seemed to be.
Tom and Joann
Executive Producer
The story of Tom and Joann Hammil, a divorced couple who explore new relationships while maintaining their mutual affection a year after their sixteen-year marriage has ended. A sequel to Breaking Up (1978).
Un hogar para vivir
Executive Producer
Una adolescente se embarca en una odisea con su abuelo, quien trata de frustrar los planes de su tío de ponerlo en un hogar para ancianos.
The World Beyond
Executive Producer
A golem made of mud terrorizes a couple on a remote Maine island.
Breaking Up
Executive Producer
JoAnn Hammil faces a harrowing fight to rediscover her personal identity when her husband of 15 years announces that he is leaving her and their children to search for the indefinable joy he feels he is missing from his life.
Tell Me My Name
Executive Producer
Based on the book by Mary Carter, "Tell Me My Name" is about a girl's visit to the woman who gave her up for adoption 19 years earlier. The adoption was a secret which now threatens to destroy the entire family.
The World of Darkness
Executive Producer
A newspaper sportswriter has a special connection to the supernatural.
Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years
Executive Producer
The story of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during their 12-year stay at the White House.
Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye
Executive Producer
Based on the best-selling book, this movie focuses on John F. Kennedy's first run for a congressional seat in 1946.
Harry S. Truman: Plain Speaking
Producer
A biography of President Harry S. Truman.
Buffalo Bill y los indios
Executive Producer
Western basado en la obra de teatro de Kopit que narra, desde un punto de vista cercano a la parodia, la vida del legendario Buffalo Bill (Paul Newman), que en 1885 triunfaba con su espectáculo circense.
A Moon for the Misbegotten
Producer
A cynical, self-hating, failed actor visits the gruff, earthy daughter of his scheming Irish tenant farmer and passes a soul-baring night of guilt-ridden confessions, tenderness, and absolution.
Alicia ya no vive aquí
Producer
Alice Hyatt, casada con un repartidor y madre de un rebelde hijo de once años, lleva una vida mediocre en Socorro (Nuevo México). Un día, conversando con su confidente y vecina, recibe la noticia de que su marido ha fallecido en un accidente de tráfico. A partir de ese instante se plantea cambiar totalmente de vida y, tras vender sus escasas pertenencias, ella y su hijo se dirigen a Monterrey (California), su ciudad natal y el único lugar donde Alice cree que podrá hacer realidad el sueño de su vida: cantar.
The Country Girl
Producer
Frank Elgin's career in the theater is all washed up — but his friend Bernie thinks he can make a comeback, as long as his wife Georgie doesn't interfere.
The Glass Menagerie
Producer
An aging Southern belle's preoccupation with her past and her dreams for her children's futures threaten to smother her painfully shy daughter and her aspiring writer son.
If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band
Producer
Life in a black ghetto isn't easy for 14-year-old Billie Jean Sims, who has a father in jail, a blind grandmother, and a brother with a drug habit. Growing up among drug pushers, prostitutes, and pimps, Billie Jean still has some things going for her: fierce pride, a loyal friend named Fish, and, at last, enough savings to visit her father 1200 miles away in prison.
Harvey
Producer
Elwood P. Dowd's constant companion is Harvey, a six-foot tall invisible rabbit. To his sister, his obsession with Harvey has been a thorn in her plans to marry off her daughter. However, when she decides to put Elwood in a mental institution, a mix-up occurs, and she finds herself committed instead. It's now up to Elwood and "Harvey" to straighten out the mess.
The Pursuit of Happiness
Producer
William Popper is the son of a stockbroker and is thoroughly disenchanted with "the system." So much so that even though he can prove that he ran over a woman in his car entirely by accident, he accepts a sentence for manslaughter.
The Price
Producer
After the Great Depression, Victor Franz gave up going to college to support his father. After 30 years, Victor returns to sell his parents’ estate. His wife, Esther, his brother, Walter, and a canny furniture dealer have their own agendas. Victor must finally deal with his sacrifice.
Amantes y otros extraños
Producer
Mike Vecchio y Susan Henderson están ultimando los preparativos de su enlace, pero parece que serán los únicos felices el día de la boda...
A Hatful of Rain
Producer
A 1968 made-for-television remake of the 1957 film, based on the disturbing 1956 Michael V. Gazzo play, as performed by members of The Actors' Studio on ABC (American Broadcasting Company) television.
Of Mice and Men
Executive Producer
Two ranch workers, one of them simple-minded, look for work and happiness during the Great Depression, but luck is not in their cards.
The Desperate Hours
Executive Producer
The Hilliards are a middle class family whose lives are put in danger when escaped convict Glenn Griffin invades their home. Griffin is crazed, tormenting the Hilliards with his meek brother Hank and sadistic Robish.
The Diary of Anne Frank
Producer
During World War II, a teenage Jewish girl named Anne Frank and her family are forced into hiding in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.
Johnny Belinda
Producer
In post-war Cape Breton, a doctor's efforts to tutor a deaf and mute woman are undermined when she is raped, and the resulting pregnancy causes scandal to swirl.
Mark Twain Tonight!
Producer
Recreating the one-man show he starred in on Broadway, Hal Holbrook portrays Mark Twain as a 70-year old humorist who skewers politicians, newspapermen and so-called patriots in this 90 minute monologue. Holbrook adapted Twain's own words for a commentary on slavery, religion and politics, mixing the satire with comic yarns about life on the Mississippi and a very effective ghost story. The show's highlight are the lengthy passages from "Huckleberry Finn".
The Human Voice
Producer
A monologue of a woman talking on the phone with her longterm lover who is about to marry another girl.
Eagle in a Cage
Producer
Recounts the events of the final years of Napoleon, culminating in his exile on the isle of St. Helena.
The Power and the Glory
Producer
Based on Graham Greene's novel about a flawed but devoted priest in 1930s Mexico who attempts to perform his duties while eluding a police lieutenant determined to capture him.
David Susskind Archive: Interview With Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
himself
The historic interview that stopped JFK in his tracks...
David Susskind Archive: Interview With Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Director
The historic interview that stopped JFK in his tracks...
Hedda Gabler
Producer
Hedda Gabler has just come back from her honeymoon, married to boring but reliable academic George Tesman. Refusing to tie herself down in life and name, Hedda is banking on George being appointed a professorship to secure a better life for the young couple, However, the arrival of cleaned up ex-lover Eilert threatens to destroy everything.
Réquiem por un campeón
Self - Trailor Narrator (uncredited)
Tras ser noqueado por Cassius Clay, a Mountain Rivera ya no le queda nada que hacer en un ring. Dada su edad y las lesiones sufridas a lo largo de su carrera, su entrenador le recomienda que busque un nuevo trabajo. Sin embargo, su representante necesita que vuelva a enfrentarse a Clay...
Réquiem por un campeón
Producer
Tras ser noqueado por Cassius Clay, a Mountain Rivera ya no le queda nada que hacer en un ring. Dada su edad y las lesiones sufridas a lo largo de su carrera, su entrenador le recomienda que busque un nuevo trabajo. Sin embargo, su representante necesita que vuelva a enfrentarse a Clay...
Un lunar en el Sol
Producer
Walter Lee Younger (Sidney Poitier), un joven negro que vive en un pequeño apartamento con su mujer, su hijo, su hermana y su madre, no puede evitar sentirse como si fuera un prisionero. Pero, un día, surge en su vida una oportunidad inesperada.
Mrs. Miniver
Producer
A British housewife faces up to the harsh realities of the Second World War.
Miracle On 34th Street
Producer
In this charming TV adaptation of the 1947 film classic, a kindly old gentleman (Ed Wynn) working as a Macy's department store Santa causes a commotion when he claims to be the real St. Nick. Forced to prove his sanity, he is taken to court where he must convince the judge and his friends that he actually is Santa Claus. The faith of one skeptical little girl (Susan Gordon) and a Christmas miracle are the keys to his true identity.
The Moon and Sixpence
Producer
A staid, dull Englishman abruptly deserts his wife and children to become a painter in the South Seas.
Medea
Producer
A betrayed queen takes a terrible revenge.
The Winslow Boy
Producer
In pre-WW1 England, a youngster is expelled from a naval academy over a petty theft, but his parents raise a political furor by demanding a trial.
Three Plays by Tennessee Williams
Executive Producer
A presentation of Tennessee Williams' three one-act plays: "Moony's Kid Don't Cry", "The Last of My Solid Gold Watches", and "This Property Is Condemned".
Donde la ciudad termina
Producer
Axel Nordmann (John Cassavetes) es un hombre de oscuro pasado. Recién llegado a Nueva York, encuentra trabajo como estibador del puerto y traba amistad con Tommy Tyler (Sidney Poitier), un joven negro. A pesar de que Tommy es trabajador y respetuoso con sus compañeros, Charles Malik (Jack Warden), el capataz, no está satisfecho de él, pues teme que puedan surgir conflictos raciales entre los trabajadores. Llega incluso a amenazar a Axel con el despido si no se aleja de Tommy, pero no conseguirá romper tan sólida amistad.
Howard Hughes: the Watergate Connection
Director
The 1973 program that explored Howard Hughes’ connection to Watergate and the alleged $100,000 bribe to Nixon that may have precipitated the break-in.
David Susskind Archive: I Was a Hitman for the Mafia
Director
The fascinating 1973 interview with a mid-level hitman named “Joey” who describes in detail his life in the mob that included the murder of 38 men.
David Susskind Archive: Gay Rights Pro and Con
Director
In the year AIDS was first defined by the CDC, this 1982 program is a human rights debate between religious scholars and notable gay New Yorkers.
David Susskind Archive: Truman Capote Tells All
An extensive interview originally broadcast in Feb. 1979. Host David Susskind and Truman Capote discuss the icon's history, his writing, his social persona and impact. More than an interview, the wide-ranging conversation between longtime friends delves into topics you are unlikely to see elsewhere.
David Susskind Archive: Truman Capote Tells All
Director
An extensive interview originally broadcast in Feb. 1979. Host David Susskind and Truman Capote discuss the icon's history, his writing, his social persona and impact. More than an interview, the wide-ranging conversation between longtime friends delves into topics you are unlikely to see elsewhere.