Nicholas Sgarro

As a director and writer, Nicholas Sgarro worked on some of the most popular television programs of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Sgarro got his start in show business during the early 1960s, when he worked as script supervisor on the gritty cop drama "Naked City." He performed the same role on some of the biggest films of the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the 1970 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, "Midnight Cowboy," the weepy romance "Love Story," the classic crime drama "The French Connection," and the iconic horror film "The Exorcist." While Sgarro would continue working as a script supervisor throughout the remainder of the 1970s, he made the jump to directorial work during the middle of the decade, including the sexploitation classic "The Happy Hooker" and episodes of the crime drama "Kojak." Sgarro would continue working as a television director through the 1980s, most notably a 13-year stint as one of the primary directors of the popular nighttime soap "Knots Landing." This turned out to be Sgarro's last work: once "Knots Landing" wrapped up in 1993, he opted to retire.