This biographyneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this biography. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Norman Tokar" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Norman Tokar
Born	(1919-11-25)November 25, 1919
Died	April 6, 1979(1979-04-06) (aged 59) Hollywood, California, U.S.
Occupation	Film director
Years active	1956–1979

Norman Tokar (November 25, 1919 – April 6, 1979) was an Americandirector, actor and occasionally writer and producer of serial television and feature films, who directed many of the early episodes ofLeave it to Beaver, and found his greatest success directing over a dozen films forWalt Disney Productions, spanning the 1950s to the 1970s.^[1][2]

On Broadway, Tokar acted inDelicate Story (1940),The Life of Reilly (1942),See My Lawyer (1939) andThe Magic Touch (1947).^[3] After that, Tokar moved into radio, most notablyThe Aldrich Family, where he played Henry Aldrich's friend Willie^[4] and wrote several episodes as well. Tokar then went into television direction on suchsitcoms asThe Bob Cummings Show andThe Donna Reed Show, the dramaNaked City, and two episodes of theanthology seriesColgate Theatre, and he co-wrote an episode ofNew Comedy Showcase.

In the early 1960s, Tokar's success working with the juvenile actors on 93 episodes of the TV sitcomLeave it to Beaver encouragedWalt Disney to hire him to direct family features for his studio, which frequently used children in key roles. His first feature film assignment was the WesternBig Red (1962), followed by theOld Yeller sequelSavage Sam (1963) andThose Calloways (1965). After directing theFred MacMurray pictureFollow Me, Boys!, and theDean Jones/Suzanne Pleshette slapstick comedyThe Ugly Dachshund (both 1966), Tokar's next directorial assignment (Walt Disney's last before his death) was the roadshow musicalThe Happiest Millionaire (1967). With aSherman Brothers score and a cast including Fred MacMurray,Greer Garson,Tommy Steele,Lesley Ann Warren, andJohn Davidson, the studio hoped the film would do as well with critics and audiences asMary Poppins (1964) had done. When it failed to do so, the studio cut the nearly three-hour film down to 144 minutes and again to 118 minutes for general release; the cut footage went unseen until it was restored in the 1990s.

Tokar followedMillionaire with more examples of the high-concept comedies that became the mainstay of the studio in the 1960s and 1970s:The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit (1968),The Boatniks (1970), andSnowball Express (1972). After directing his only non-Disney featureWhere the Red Fern Grows (1974), Tokar made his most commercially successful film; the comedy westernThe Apple Dumpling Gang (1975). FollowingCandleshoe (1977), on Tokar's final film before his death,The Cat from Outer Space (1978), he gained a co-producer credit.

On April 6, 1979, Tokar died in his sleep at Cedar Sinai inHollywood,California, following a recent heart attack.^{[citation needed]}

• Norman Tokar atIMDb

• 1919 births
• 1979 deaths
• 20th-century American male actors
• American male stage actors
• American television directors
• Disney people
• Film directors from New Jersey

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from May 2018
• All articles needing additional references
• Articles with hCards
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from August 2024