Gary Nelson

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Gary Nelson, Freaky Friday and The Black Hole Director, Dead at 87


Gary Nelson, the director behind hit 1970s Disney films Freaky Friday and The Black Hole, among others, passed away earlier this year. The Hollywood Reporter brings confirmation on Nelson's death, which actually occurred back on May 25 though no news of it happening over the summer was ever revealed. Nelson's son Garrett confirmed the news, revealing that Gary passed in Las Vegas of natural causes, he was 87 at the time of his death. He was survived by his sons Garrett and Blue, and was preceded in death by his wife of 52 years, Meredith.

Before he became a wunderkind for Disney, Gary Nelson would cut his teeth directing with work as an AD, later transitioning to helming television shows including Have Gun – Will Travel, The Andy Griffith Show, Gilligan's Island, The Doris Day Show, and others. Nelson would go on to become the "in house" director for his TV series Get Smart, directing 23 episodes of the show across its five seasons.

The projects Nelson directed that many are familiar with are perhaps his Disney work including the original Freak Friday starring Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster as mother and daughter that swap bodies and 1979's The Black Hole, a cult sci-fi hit that starred Anthony Perkins and Robert Forster. His work with Disney didn't end there though as he would also direct eight episodes of The Magical World of Disney. Nelson's first feature films as a director would be the westerns Molly and Lawless John and Santee in the early 1970s.

Though he had over a hundred credits to his name, Nelson would only be nominated for an award with one project, the 1977 TV mini-series Washington: Behind Closed Doors, a series inspired by the Nixon White House. Nelson would be nominated for a Primetime Emmy in the Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series category for his work on the show.


Nelson's credits were extensive however with stints directing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, McClain's Law, Love, American Style, McMillan & Wife, Nanny and the Professor, and Gomer Pyle: USMC. His final directing work was for the Kyle Chandler TV series Early Edition in the later 90s/early 2000s, for which he directed 19 episodes.

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Gary Nelson, Director of ‘Freaky Friday,’ ‘The Black Hole’ and ‘Get Smart,’ Dies at 87
He also worked on the miniseries 'Washington: Behind Closed Doors' and on 'The Andy Griffith Show,' 'Gilligan's Island' and 'Early Edition,' among many other series.


Gary Nelson, who directed the Disney films Freaky Friday and The Black Hole, served as the in-house helmer on the first two seasons of Get Smart and called the shots for scores of other shows, has died. He was 87.

Nelson died May 25 in Las Vegas of natural causes, his son Garrett Nelson told The Hollywood Reporter.

His father was Sam Nelson, who served as an assistant director on such landmark films as The Lady From Shanghai (1947), All the King’s Men (1949), Some Like It Hot (1959) and Experiment in Terror (1962) and was a co-founder, along with King Vidor and others, of what would become the DGA.


Gary Nelson started out as an A.D., too, working on films including Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause (1955), John Ford’s The Searchers (1956) and John Sturges’ Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), before he got a big break thanks to his future wife, late actress Judi Meredith.

Nelson was known on set for his dry, deadpan sense of humor, and Get Smart star Don Adams nicknamed him as “The Iceman” because the writers and actors on the comedy, created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, could rarely get him to smile. (He directed 23 episodes of the 1965-70 series.)

In addition to Freaky Friday (1976), starring Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster, and The Black Hole (1979), the first PG-rated film from Disney, Nelson directed Molly and Lawless John (1972), featuring Vera Miles and Sam Elliott; Santee (1973), starring Glenn Ford; Jimmy the Kid (1982), starring Gary Coleman; and Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986), starring Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone.

He also helmed all six episodes of the acclaimed 1977 ABC miniseries Washington: Behind Closed Doors, which covered 12 1/2 hours and won Robert Vaughn an Emmy.

Born in Los Angeles on Oct. 6, 1934, Nelson enjoyed a breakthrough year in 1955, when he worked as an A.D. on Rebel Without a Cause, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Guys and Dolls and installments of The Millionaire, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and The 20th Century-Fox Hour.

He met Meredith, a sought-after actress in ingenue roles, on the set of Have Gun — Will Travel in the 1950s, and when producers wanted her for a 1962 episode of the CBS Western, she signed on — but only if Nelson were allowed to direct. He got the chance, helming her in the episode “Memories of Monica” in 1962.


Nelson went on to direct installments of The Andy Griffith Show, Gunsmoke, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, The Patty Duke Show, F Troop, Gilligan’s Island, Captain Nice, Good Morning World, Gomer Pyle: USMC, The Doris Day Show, Love, American Style, Room 222, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, Nanny and the Professor, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, McMillan & Wife, Kojak and Police Story.

He retired after directing and serving as a co-executive producer on the 1996-2000 CBS drama Early Edition, starring Kyle Chandler.

He and Meredith were married for 52 years until her death in 2014. Survivors include his sons, Garrett and Blue.