| Sutton Roley, longtime
episodic television director, died March 3, 2007 at the age of 84. He
was born October 19, 1922, in Belle Vernon, PA. More than any other
director of his generation, Roley was known within the industry for
his exuberant visual sense, a near- constant use of skewed angles,
distorted lenses, long takes, elaborate tracking shots, and bold compositions
(as with many of his contemporaries, the influence of Orson Welles
and "Citizen Kane" was
paramount). This led to conflicts with more conservative producers,
cameramen, and actors, but when Roley encountered equally adventuresome
collaborators he could produce some of the most dazzling imagery ever
composed for TV. His best and most sustained work was probably done for "Combat" in the mid-sixties and "Mannix" in the early seventies(my favorite "Roley shot" is a lengthy love scene between Mike Connors and Sally Kellerman, shot in one take entirely through the bars of a birdcage filled with twittering parakeets). Roley started out in live TV, directing (and sometimes
writing) "Lights
Out" and "The Kate Smith Show," and segued into filmed television
via the Ziv factory of cheap half-hour action shows ("Harbor Command, "Men
of Annapolis"). His other credits included "Adventures in Paradise," "The
Man From UNCLE," "The Rat Patrol,""Twelve O'Clock High," "The Name
of the Game," "The
Invaders," "Lost in Space," and "Voyage to the Bottom of
the Sea." Paid death notice from the LA Times (March 7): ROLEY , Sutton Wilson |
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