Ford Beebe

Ford Beebe

Ford Ingalsbe Beebe (November 26, 1888 – November 26, 1978) was a screenwriter and director. He was the son of Oscar and Mary (née Ingalsbe) Beebe. He entered the film business as a writer in 1916 (as far as is known) and over the next 60 years wrote and/or directed almost 200 films. He specialized in B-movies – mostly Westerns – and action serials, working on the "Buck Rogers" and "Flash Gordon" serials for Universal Pictures. He had a reputation as a journeyman director who got his films made on time and under budget, which endeared him to producers and kept him steadily employed over the years. Alfred Hitchcock, another filmmaker known for his thriftiness, gave Beebe credit for his technique which Hitchcock used in a scene in North By Northwest, where Cary Grant is chased by a bi-plane. Film historians often credit him with his son's (Ford Beebe II) film work who continued in the family tradition, directing commercial, documentary and low-budget adventure films. Ford Beebe II cut his film teeth with his father and then at Disney as an assistant director on the Walt Disney animated film Pinocchio (1940) and directed (uncredited) the "Pastoral Symphony" segment of Disney's classic Fantasia. Late in his career Ford Beebe II co-produced a Disney/Buena Vista release, CHarlie the Lonesome Cougar, 1967 and his last feature, as director, was Joniko and the Kush Ta Ka, 1969.

Read more about Ford Beebe:  Selected Filmography

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