Ted Post obit

‘Magnum Force’ Director Ted Post Dies at 95

He also guided Clint Eastwood on TV’s “Rawhide” and in the classic Western film “Hang ’Em High” before the pair reportedly had a falling-out.

 

He was not on the list.

Ted Post, who directed Clint Eastwood on TV’s Rawhide and in the classic action films Hang ’Em High and Magnum Force before clashing with the actor, has died. He was 95.

Post, who also helmed 56 episodes of the venerable CBS Western Gunsmoke, 90 installments of the 1960s ABC primetime soap Peyton Place and the 1981 pilot episode for the famed CBS cop show Cagney & Lacey, died early Tuesday at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, a family friend told The Hollywood Reporter.

Post’s feature work also included the sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970); the horror film The Baby (1973); the sexually provocative The Harrad Experiment (1973); the Elliott Gould comedy Whiffs (1975); the Burt Lancaster starrer Go Tell the Spartans (1978); Good Guys Wear Black (1978), toplined by Chuck Norris; and Nightkill (1980) with Robert Mitchum.

Post made his feature debut with The Peacemaker (1956), a Western about a gunfighter turned preacher starring James Mitchell and Rosemarie Stack.

A native of Brooklyn whose interest in the movies was fueled by a job as a usher, Post started out in the early days of live television, working on such 1950s anthology series as Armstrong Circle Theater, Schlitz Playhouse and The Ford Television Theatre.

Throughout the 1960s, Post specialized in Westerns on television, guiding episodes of Tombstone Territory, Law of the Plainsman, The Rifleman, Wagon Train and Rawhide and other shows like Combat. The Detectives, Twilight Zone, Route 66 and Perry Mason.

Post was at the helm of 24 episodes of Rawhide, on which a young, raw Eastwood blossomed as the impetuous Rowdy Yates. The series ran from 1959-65 on CBS.

For Hang ‘Em High (1968), Eastwood — coming off the Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly — starred as Jed Cooper, an innocent man who survives a lynching.

As the Leone films had begun to take off in the States, Hang ’Em High was a huge financial success for United Artists and marked a career-making turn for Eastwood.

Post and Eastwood’s relationship soured on Magnum Force (1973), the second film to feature the actor as maverick San Francisco cop Harry Callahan. Post would later claim in an interview that Eastwood was “feeling his oats as a budding director. He made editorial changes without consulting me.”

Post also said that Eastwood allowed Hollywood to believe that the actor was the film’s real director, thus sabotaging Post’s future as a feature filmmaker. (Eastwood had made his directorial debut on 1971’s Play Misty for Me.)

Later in the 1970s and ’80s, Post directed telefilms, miniseries like Rich Man, Poor Man and episodes of such series as Baretta and Columbo.

In 1996, in his late seventies, Post formed Pro Bono Productions to showcase the talent and expertise of older union and guild members in Hollywood; among those endorsing the nonprofit corporation was Eastwood.

“Today we’re living in an era where it’s a sin to be old,” Post told the Los Angeles Times. “It wasn’t true years ago. They were looking for people with experience to guide them. But, these days, you’re discarded like Kleenex. It’s a very serious problem.”

His last directing credit was the low-budget film 4 Faces (1999).

In addition to his daughter, Post is survived by his wife of 72 years, Thelma; son, Robert Post, dean of Yale Law School; daughter Laurie; four grandchildren; his brother Joe; and his sister Ruth.

Director (92 credits)

 2017 The Forsaken Westerns (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Knave of Hearts (2017)

 2001 4 Faces

 1991 The Human Shield

 1986 Stagecoach (TV Movie)

 1984 Clay Feet (TV Movie)

 1964-1983 Insight (TV Series) (7 episodes)

- Dutton's Choice (1983)

- A Gun for Mandy (1982)

- When, Jenny? When? (1979)

- Incident on Danker Street (1970)

- The Governor's Mansion (1968) ... (directed by)

1981 Cagney & Lacey (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Pilot (1981) ... (directed by)

 1980 Nightkill

 1980 Beyond Westworld (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Westworld Destroyed (1980)

 1980 B.A.D. Cats (TV Series) (1 episode)

- I Want It or You Die (1980)

 1979 Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker (TV Movie)

 1979 The Girls in the Office (TV Movie)

 1978 Go Tell the Spartans

 1978 Good Guys Wear Black

 1977 Future Cop (TV Series) (1 episode)

- The Mad Mad Bomber (1977)

 1976-1977 Rich Man, Poor Man - Book II (TV Series) (2 episodes)

- Chapter XIV (1977)

- Chapter XII (1976)

 1976 Ark II (TV Series) (8 episodes)

- Don Quixote (1976)

- The Lottery (1976)

- The Drought (1976)

- The Rule (1976)

- The Cryogenic Man (1976)

1975-1976 Columbo (TV Series) (2 episodes)

- A Matter of Honor (1976)

- A Case of Immunity (1975)

 1975 Whiffs

 1975 Baretta (TV Series) (1 episode)

- The Fire Man (1975)

 1973 Magnum Force (directed by)

 1973 The Harrad Experiment

 1973 The Baby

 1971-1972 Norman Corwin Presents (TV Series) (4 episodes)

- The Undecided Molecule (1972)

- Bingo Twice a Week (1972)

- The Joy of Living (1972)

- You Think You've Got Troubles? (1971)

 1972 Sandcastles (TV Movie)

 1972 The Bravos (TV Movie)

 1971 Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate (TV Movie)

 1971 Monty Nash (TV Series) (2 episodes)

- The Ambassador's Daughter (1971)

- Code Name: Diana (1971)

 1971 Five Desperate Women (TV Movie)

 1971 Yuma (TV Movie)

 1971 Dr. Cook's Garden (TV Movie)

 1970 Night Slaves (TV Movie)

 1970 Beneath the Planet of the Apes (directed by)

 1969 Bracken's World (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Panic (1969)

 1964-1969 Peyton Place (TV Series) (179 episodes)

- Episode #5.52 (1969)

- Episode #5.51 (1969)

- Episode #5.48 (1969)

- Episode #5.47 (1969)

- Episode #5.40 (1969)

1968 Hang 'Em High

 1960-1964 The Twilight Zone (TV Series) (4 episodes)

- The Fear (1964)

- Mr. Garrity and the Graves (1964)

- Probe 7, Over and Out (1963)

- A World of Difference (1960)

 1963-1964 Combat! (TV Series) (7 episodes)

- Rescue (1964)

- Weep No More (1964)

- The Hostages (1964)

- The Long Way Home: Part 2 (1963)

- The Long Way Home: Part 1 (1963)

1964 Suspense (TV Series) (1 episode)

- I, Mike Kenny (1964)

 1964 The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (TV Series) (2 episodes)

- The Day of the 12 Candles (1964)

- The Day of the Tin Trumpet (1964)

 1959-1964 Rawhide (TV Series) (24 episodes)

- Incident of the Dowery Dundee (1964)

- Incident of the Rusty Shotgun (1964)

- Incident at Ten Trees (1964)

- Incident of the Geisha (1963)

- Incident of the Rawhiders (1963)

1963 Channing (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Beyond His Reach (1963)

 1963 Kraft Mystery Theater (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Of Struggle and Flight (1963)

 1962-1963 Alcoa Premiere (TV Series) (4 episodes)

- Of Struggle and Flight (1963)

- Guest in the House (1962)

- Cry Out in Silence (1962)

- Second Chance (1962)

 1956-1963 Gunsmoke (TV Series) (55 episodes)

- Blind Man's Bluff (1963)

- Shona (1963)

- The Widow (1962)

- Half Straight (1962)

- Chesterland (1961)

1962 The Defenders (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Death Takes the Stand (1962)

 1962 Wide Country (TV Series) (2 episodes)

- My Candle Burns at Both Ends (1962)

- The Bravest Man in the World (1962)

 1962 Empire (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Long Past, Long Remembered (1962)

 1962 The Virginian (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Throw a Long Rope (1962)

 1960-1962 Wagon Train (TV Series) (8 episodes)

- The Jud Steele Story (1962)

- Wagon to Fort Anderson (1961)

- The Eleanor Culhane Story (1961)

- The Will Santee Story (1961)

- The Allison Justis Story (1960)

1961-1962 Thriller (TV Series) (2 episodes)

- The Specialists (1962)

- Papa Benjamin (1961)

 1962 General Electric Theater (TV Series) (1 episode)

- The Bar Mitzvah of Major Orlovsky (1962)

 1962 Bus Stop (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Put Your Dreams Away (1962)

 1961 Espionage: Far East

 1961 The Tall Man (TV Series) (2 episodes)

- Sidekick (1961)

- The Woman (1961)

 1961 Follow the Sun (TV Series) (3 episodes)

- Conspiracy of Silence (1961)

- Little Girl Lost (1961)

- The Highest Wall (1961)

 1960-1961 The Detectives (TV Series) (4 episodes)

- Song of the Guilty Heart (1961)

- Adopted (1960)

- The Old Gang (1960)

- Karate (1960)

 1961 Laramie (TV Series) (1 episode)

- The Accusers (1961)

 1960-1961 Checkmate (TV Series) (2 episodes)

- Jungle Castle (1961)

- The Mask of Vengeance (1960)

 1961 Route 66 (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Sleep on Four Pillows (1961)

 1960 The Best of the Post (TV Series) (1 episode)

- The Marriage That Couldn't Succeed (1960)

 1960 The Westerner (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Treasure (1960)

 1959-1960 The Rifleman (TV Series) (4 episodes)

- Seven (1960)

- Nora (1960)

- Sins of the Father (1960)

- Tension (1959)

 1960 Startime (TV Series) (1 episode)

- The Young Juggler (1960)

 1959 Law of the Plainsman (TV Series) (2 episodes)

- The Innocents (1959)

- The Dude (1959)

 1959 Armchair Theatre (TV Series) (1 episode)

- You'll Never See Me Again (1959)

 1959 The Legend of Tom Dooley

 1958 Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Silent Thunder (1958)

 1958 Steve Canyon (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Operation Towline (1958)

 1958 Richard Diamond, Private Detective (TV Series) (2 episodes)

- The Percentage Takers (1958)

- Lost Testament (1958)

 1958 Studio One (TV Series) (1 episode)

- The McTaggart Succession (1958)

 1958 Tombstone Territory (TV Series) (3 episodes)

- Johnny Ringo's Last Ride (1958)

- Postmarked for Death (1958)

- Mexican Bandito (1958)

 1957-1958 Perry Mason (TV Series) (2 episodes)

- The Case of the Sun Bather's Diary (1958)

- The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink (1957)

 1957 The Return of Phileas Fogg (Short)

 1957 Code 3 (TV Series) (1 episode)

- The Benson Case (1957)

 1957 West Point (TV Series) (3 episodes)

- Flareup (1957)

- Contact (1957)

- Backfire (1957)

 1956 Chevron Hall of Stars (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Moment of Fear (1956)

 1956 The Peacemaker

 1956 Zane Grey Theatre (TV Series) (1 episode)

- A Quiet Sunday in San Ardo (1956)

 1956 Screen Directors Playhouse (TV Series) (1 episode)

- White Corridors (1956)

 1956 Sneak Preview (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Merry-Go-Round (1956)

 1956 The Loretta Young Show (TV Series) (1 episode)

- The Wise One (1956)

 1956 The 20th Century-Fox Hour (TV Series) (2 episodes)

- Crack-Up (1956)

- Yacht on the High Sea (1956)

 1954-1955 Waterfront (TV Series) (52 episodes)

- The Yacht Race (1955)

- The Seal (1955)

- The Rivals (1955)

- The Hideout (1955)

- The Angel Louise (1955)

1953-1955 The Ford Television Theatre (TV Series) (21 episodes)

- The Blue Ribbon (1955)

- Twelve to Eternity (1955)

- The Lady in the Wind (1955)

- The Tryst (1954)

- A Season to Love (1954)

1955 Medic (TV Series) (5 episodes)

- Walk with Lions (1955)

- Death Is a Red Balloon (1955)

- Mercy Wears an Apron (1955)

- A Time to Be Alive (1955)

- Breath of Life (1955)

 1955 TV Reader's Digest (TV Series) (1 episode)

- I'll Pick More Daisies (1955)

 1954 The Ray Milland Show (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Field Trip (1954)

 1952-1954 Schlitz Playhouse (TV Series) (20 episodes)

- Captain in Command (1954)

- Lineman's Luck (1953)

- In the Pincers (1953)

- The Long Shot (1953)

- Sheila (1953)

1951-1952 Armstrong Circle Theatre (TV Series) (22 episodes)

- Caprice (1952)

- Round Robin (1952)

- Return the Favor (1952)

- Changing Dream (1952)

- For Worse (1952)

1951 The Great Merlini (TV Movie)

 1950-1951 Danger (TV Series) (2 episodes)

- Charles Markham, Antique Dealer (1951)

- Borderline Affair (1950)

Writer (2 credits)

 1972 The Bravos (TV Movie) (uncredited)

 1960 Startime (TV Series) (writer - 1 episode)

- The Young Juggler (1960) ... (writer)

Actor (1 credit)

 1973 The Baby

Dart player at birthday party (uncredited)