Dick Lowry

Dick Lowry is one of the most prolific made-for-TV movie directors of the 1980s, '90s, and 2000s. As a distinguished student at California's prestigious American Film Institute, Lowry went on to work with artists like Rip Torn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gina Gershon, and Gerard Butler, though his canvas would almost always be the small screen. From the beginning, Lowry demonstrated an ability to tell his stories on a micro budget; his first gig was as a second-unit director on legendary B-movie king Roger Corman's cult horror hit "Piranha" in 1978. Lowry rounded out the decade directing episodes of CBS's detective serial "Barnaby Jones" and a "Star Wars"-inspired TV incarnation of "Buck Rogers." The 1980s greeted him with similar success, and Lowry helmed the ratings bonanza "Kenny Rodgers as the Gambler," a massively successful TV Western that garnered four sequels, of which Lowry himself oversaw three. He often tackled several projects a year, and in 1998 Lowry's efforts were honored for his work on "Last Stand at Saber River," a post Civil War-era drama starring Tom Selleck, and the film took home a Western Heritage Award for best television feature film. Lowry notably turned his attention from the past to the future in 2004, directing the popular disaster miniseries "Category 6: Day of Destruction" for CBS, as well as its follow-up, "Category 7: The End of the World." Lowry directed the family Christmas film "Silver Bells" before retiring in 2005.