Bud Yorkin, director, producer, actor, died at 89

  Dead Famous

Dead. Alan David “Bud” Yorkin, born February 22, 1926 and died August 18, 2015, he was an American film and television producer, director, writer and actor.
Yorkin was born near Pittsburgh in the city of Washington, Pennsylvania.

He earned a degree in engineering from Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In 1954, Bud Yorkin became the producer of NBC’s The Tony Martin Show, a 15-minute variety program which preceded the nightly news on Monday evenings.

In 1956, he became the producer and director of Tennessee Ernie Ford’s NBC half-hour comedy/variety program, The Ford Show.

In 1958, Yorkin joined writer/producer Norman Lear to form Tandem Productions, which produced several motion pictures and television specials in the 1960s to 1971 with such major studios like United Artists and Warner Bros.

Bud Yorkin directed and produced the 1958 TV special An Evening With Fred Astaire, which won nine Emmy Awards.

Yorkin later produced many of the hit sitcoms of the ’70s, such as All in the Family, Maude, Good Times and Sanford and Son.

After his split with Lear, Yorkin went on to form Bud Yorkin Productions. His first sitcom after the split was the unsuccessful Sanford and Son spin-off sitcom Grady.

In 1976, he formed TOY Productions with Saul Turteltaub and Bernie Orenstein (who produced Sanford and Son from 1974–1977) and their two hits were What’s Happening! and Carter Country.

TOY Productions was acquired by Columbia Pictures Television in 1979.

In 1999, he and Lear were awarded the Women in Film Lucy Award in recognition of excellence and innovation in creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television.

In 2002, Yorkin was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.

Bud Yorkin’s film directing credits include The Thief Who Came to Dinner, Divorce American Style and Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther series.