Earl Bellamy

Earl Bellamy was an American screen director, producer, and writer who is best remembered for his work on 1950s TV Westerns. The Minnesota-born Bellamy settled with his parents in Hollywood in the late 1920s at the height of the town's transformation into a movie production center. Prior to World War II, Bellamy took a job at Columbia Studios, working his way up the ranks from messenger to assistant director. After serving in the war, Bellamy returned to Hollywood and began directorial work on dozens of TV shows, most notably the iconic Western series "The Lone Ranger" and the children's animal-adventure program "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin." In the late 1950s and '60s, Bellamy broadened his scope to include family-oriented fare like "Lassie" and the classic suburban-life sitcom "Leave It to Beaver," as well as a clever parody of that style of show, "The Munsters." Bellamy continued to direct and produce well into the 1980s, working in every genre from sitcoms and dramas to sci-fi and fantasy.