Gordon Douglas

 Gordon Douglas (December 15, 1907 – September 29, 1993)

Douglas was a film director, who directed many different genres of films over the course of a five-decade career in motion pictures. He was a native of New York City. As a teenager he got a job at the Hal Roach Studios, working in the office and appearing in bit parts in various Hal Roach films. He made walk-on appearances in at least three Our Gang shorts: Teacher’s Pet, Big Ears and Birthday Blues. By 1934 Douglas was assistant to director Gus Meins and served as assistant director on Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s 1934 film Babes in Toyland and on the Our Gang comedies made between 1934 and mid-1936. Beginning with Bored of Education in 1936, Our Gang moved from two-reel (20-minute) comedies to one-reel (10-minute) comedies, and Douglas became the senior director of the series. Bored of Education won the 1936 Academy Award for Live Action Short Film, and was the only Our Gang entry ever honored with the award. Douglas remained with the series as director for two years. His Our Gang shorts, featuring Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Porky, Buckwheat, Waldo, Butch and Woim, are the most familiar in the series’ 22-year canon. Douglas's films were generally slick and entertaining, and several rose above average. His biggest hit was the classic sci-fi thriller "Them!" (1954). Among his other credits are the Laurel & Hardy comedy "Saps at Sea" (1940), "Only the Valiant" (1951), "Come Fill the Cup" (1951), "Up Periscope" (1959), "Robin and the 7 Hoods" (1964), "Harlow" (1965), "In Like Flynt" (1967), "Tony Rome" (1967), and "The Detective" (1968). Gordon Douglas died of cancer on September 29, 1993 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 85. He is interred at Forest Lawn-Glendale.