Martin Manulis

Producer Martin Manulis established himself as a powerhouse in several arenas of filmed entertainment that spanned the mid-'50s through the early '90s. In his first years, he clocked in as one of the key progenitors of live U.S. television drama during its heyday (the "Golden Age of Television"). Manulis cultivated a formidable reputation by shepherding his dramatic anthology series Playhouse 90 (CBS, 1956-1961) to one of the top-tiered spots in all of prime time -- largely by tapping such geniuses as Rod Serling, Arthur Penn, George Roy Hill, John Frankenheimer, and others to script and helm episodes, years before those men graduated to pioneer status. Memorable Playhouse productions during the early days included small-screen versions of Requiem for a Heavyweight, Days of Wine & Roses, and The Miracle Worker. Manulis spent three years behind that anthology program, then reportedly grew exhausted with the demands of live production and moved to 20th Century Fox Television, where he turned out such series classics as The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-1963).

Not long afterward, the producer shifted gears once again and moved (like his former Playhouse collaborators) into feature-film production, with such big-screen outings as Days of Wine and Roses (1962), Luv (1967), and Duffy (1968). His production efforts extended into the early '90s, but in time came to focus more on telemovies, such as the 1980 religious opus The Day Christ Died, the 1986 period adventure Harem (not to be confused with the Ben Kingsley film of the same title), and the 1992 Grass Roots, a three-and-a-half-hour miniseries about a Southern attorney (Corbin Bernsen) and his involvement in a murder trial. After a lengthy retirement from production, Manulis died in 2007, at age 92.

~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide