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Leonard Horn | |
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| Born | (1926-08-01)August 1, 1926 Bangor, Maine, U.S. |
| Died | May 25, 1975(1975-05-25) (aged 48) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Director |
Leonard Horn (August 1, 1926 – May 25, 1975) was an American director of prime time television programs in the 1960s and 1970s and helped shape a number of "classic" adventure and sci-fi series, includingMission: Impossible,Mannix,Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, andWonder Woman. Horn was born inBangor, Maine.
Horn started directing in 1959-1962 forAlfred Hitchcock Presents andThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour and was soon among a stable of directors working on such popular prime-time programs asThe Untouchables,Route 66, andThe Fugitive. Horn's most sustained contribution to one series was directing ten episodes ofMission: Impossible, including five in the first season. His "Operation Rogosh" (1966), the series' 3rd episode, ties among IMDB voters for the most popular first-season show, and most of his other efforts get high marks. In one of Horn's second-season episodes, "Trek",Peter Graves appeared for the first time as "Mr. Phelps".
Contemporary fan-sites, such as the viewer polling pages of theInternet Movie Database (IMDB) andTV.com, show Horn's work to have stood the test of time. Many of the 94 episodes he directed for 34 prime-time television series rank among the more popular moments in the first "Golden Age of Television."
Horn was responsible for a number of classic TV pilots. In 1967, he directed the first episode ofMannix ("My Name is Mannix"), written byBruce Geller, the creator and producer ofMission: Impossible. Half of the images for the show's subsequently-famous opening montage derive from this production. Horn directed an additional seven episodes for the series. Also, in 1967, he directed the second pilot for the seriesIronside ("Split Second to an Epitaph"). His last pilot, and final television production, was for the seriesWonder Woman in 1975, and was nominated for an Emmy in graphic design and title sequencing.
Along with adventure, science-fiction was among Horn's most successful genres. Of three first-season episodes he directed forThe Outer Limits, two are ranked in the top ten by IMDB users, and one, "The Man Who Was Never Born" is considered among the series' classics. Horn's singleLost in Space entry ("Invaders from the 5th Dimension") likewise makes the IMDB top ten of the series' first-season episodes. In the premier season ofVoyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the four most popular episodes among IMDB users were all directed by Horn, with "The Fear-Makers" called by one user "the first truly great episode".[1]
Even when Horn turned his attention to less familiar genres, such as the Western, he often managed to get the best performances out of his actors. The one episode he directed forThe High Chaparral ("The Price of Revenge") ties among IMDB fans for the best first-season entry, and is among the most popular in the whole series. Late in his career, Horn turned to police shows, directing nine episodes ofThe Rookies, three forPolice Woman, one each forMcMillan & Wife andThe Mod Squad.[2] He directed the 1973 TV movieHunter. He also directed for the short-lived 1974ABCpolice dramaNakia.
Horn briefly tried his hand at producing as well as directing in the seriesIt Takes a Thief. His one other effort as a producer (this time without directing) was the made-for-TV movieThe Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976) – which garnered an Emmy for leadAnthony Hopkins, and a Golden Globe nomination for Best TV Movie. One earlier directorial effort, the TV movieRogue's Gallery (1968), also landed a Golden Globe nomination for lead Greta Baldwin.
Horn directedThe Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (1970) whichAndy Warhol called "the quintessential, most truthful studio-made film about the '60s counterculture".[3] Horn also directedCorky (1972) starringRobert Blake as a stock car racer.
Horn suffered a heart attack while shooting the pilot forWonder Woman in the spring of 1975 and died that May at the age of 48 in Los Angeles, California.
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