Frederick Timmins de Cordova (October 27, 1910 – September 15, 2001) was an American stage, motion picture and television director and producer. He is best known for his work on ''

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...

''.

Early life

De Cordova was born in

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the son of Margaret ( née Timmins) and George de Cordova, who worked in the theatre business. George de Cordova was from a Jamaican Sephardic Jewish family related to Julian de Cordova, founder of the

DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum is a 30-acre sculpture park and contemporary art museum on the shore of Flint's Pond in Lincoln, Massachusetts, 20 miles northwest of Boston. It was established in 1950. It is the largest park of its kind ...

, and Waco, Texas, founder

Jacob de Cordova Jacob Raphael De Cordova (6 June 1808 – 26 January 1868) was the founder of the ''Jamaica Gleaner''. He settled in Texas in 1839 and lived in Galveston. After living in Galveston, De Cordova moved to Houston, Texas where he was elected ...

. In his 1988 autobiography, de Cordova described his parents as con artists who, during his early years, lived well and skipped town without paying their bills. In 1931, he received an undergraduate degree in

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

Career

De Cordova's first theater credit was as a performer in ''Elmer, the Great'' (1928). After his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1933, he gained employment in the Shubert Theater organization and directed stage shows for the next ten years. He was variously a performer, stage manager, stage director, and finally, dialogue director, the last in ''Ziegfeld Follies of 1943''. He was a dialogue director in five films, including ''

To Have and Have Not ''To Have and Have Not'' is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1937 by Charles Scribner's Sons. The book follows Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain out of Key West, Florida. ''To Have and Have Not'' was Hemingway's second novel set in th ...

'' (1944). His first film directing job was '' Too Young to Know'' (1945) for

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

. He directed 23 movies. One of the better known was '' Bedtime for Bonzo'' (1951) starring future President Ronald Reagan and a chimpanzee. He also directed

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Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia ...

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, Yvonne de Carlo,

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, and Humphrey Bogart. Much of his career was at

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

, where he was known for turning out entertaining pictures quickly, even with difficult actors, and on a low budget. His last film was '' Frankie and Johnny'' (1966) with

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. He turned to directing television when there was less need for low-budget movies to serve as the second half of a double feature. His skills were perfect for TV. His TV career began in 1950 with directing ''

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'', on which he was played several times by actor

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. Other programs he directed include ''

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,'' ''

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'', ''

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'', ''

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'', '' Leave It to Beaver'', ''

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'' (108 episodes), and ''

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''. He directed and/or produced more than 500 TV series or segments. He produced ''

'' starting in 1970 using the name Fred de Cordova. He became producer of the show in 1970 and executive producer in 1984. In a 1981 interview, he described his job as "chief traffic cop, talent scout, No. 1 fan and critic all rolled into one". De Cordova was described as ".. a large, looming, beaming man with horn-rimmed glasses, an Acapulcan tan, and an engulfing handshake that is a contract in itself, complete with small print and an option for renewal on both sides." He was executive producer when the final Carson ''Tonight Show'' signed off on May 22, 1992. He won five

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for his work on the show. During tapings of the ''Tonight Show'', de Cordova would sit in a chair just beyond the guests' couch so that he could cue Carson directly and speak with him during commercial breaks. By the 1980s, Carson would occasionally speak to de Cordova during the show, although usually the moment would pass so quickly that there would be no time to give de Cordova a microphone or catch him on camera. These awkward exchanges became an object of parody. An episode of '' SCTV'' aired in 1981 featured a sketch of "The Freddie de Cordova Show". The segment was almost an exact copy of the ''Tonight Show'', except the host's desk was empty; de Cordova conducted all of his interviews from his usual perch off-camera. On the real program in 1988, as a takeoff on the installation of lights in Wrigley Field, Carson ceremonially installed a light on the edge of the set so that de Cordova could finally be seen. In June 1991, Carson's son Ricky was killed in an automobile accident; a month later, Carson paid tribute at the end of a show to his son. De Cordova was concerned that the show was going long and gave Carson the "wrap it up sign." Carson was so infuriated, from that point forward de Cordova was no longer permitted to be in the studio during the taping of the show, although he remained the show's executive producer. During guest appearances on ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and music ...

'', comedian

Will Ferrell John William Ferrell (; born July 16, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He first established himself in the mid-1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show '' Saturday Night Live'', where he performed from 1995 to 2 ...

played the role of a deluded Robert Goulet, who believed himself to be a guest on ''

''. Ferrell's fictional Goulet made references to de Cordova, insisting that de Cordova owed him money (or, conversely, that Goulet owed de Cordova money). In 1995 and 1998, respectively, de Cordova appeared as himself on ''

The Larry Sanders Show ''The Larry Sanders Show'' is an American television sitcom set in the office and studio of a fictional late-night talk show. The series was created by Garry Shandling and Dennis Klein and aired from August 15, 1992, to May 31, 1998, on the HBO ...

'' in the fourth-season episode, "Eight", and in the sixth-season episode, "As My Career Lay Dying". The character of 'Artie' is largely based on de Cordova.

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, inclu ...

's 1982 film, '' The King of Comedy'', about a delusional fan ( Robert De Niro) who kidnaps a late-night talk-show host ( Jerry Lewis), cast de Cordova as the show's producer.

Personal life and death

De Cordova married former actress Janet Thomas in 1963, and they remained married for the rest of his life. He died of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, California on September 15, 2001 and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Acting filmography

References

External links