John Florea (born in

Alliance, Ohio Alliance is a city in eastern Stark County, Ohio, United States. With a small district lying in adjacent Mahoning County, the city is approximately northeast of Canton, southwest of Youngstown and southeast of Cleveland. The population was 21 ...

on May 28, 1916; died in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

on August 25, 2000) was an American television director and a photographer.

Career

Florea started as a photographer for the

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

, then was signed onto the staff of

LIFE Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

in 1941, living in Hollywood and specializing in celebrity portraits of actresses, such as

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

and

Jane Russell Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American actress, singer, and model. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. She starred in more than 20 films. Russell moved from th ...

. After the bombing of

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

which led to U.S. involvement in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he joined America's first war correspondents for the Pacific war, where he covered the Marines and the Navy, especially during the

Battle of Tarawa The Battle of Tarawa was fought on 20–23 November 1943 between the United States and Japan at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, an ...

in December 1943, and from 1944 until the end of the war, he followed the American army in French and Belgian campaigns, documenting the bombing of German cities and liberation of inmates of

Nordhausen Nordhausen may refer to: * Nordhausen (district), a district in Thuringia, Germany ** Nordhausen, Thuringia, a city in the district **Nordhausen station, the railway station in the city * Nordhouse, a commune in Alsace (German: Nordhausen) * Narost ...

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

. A picture of his of an emaciated American POW was given exposure throughout the US, and his photograph "Read My Vote", made in Japan in 1947, was included by

Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and curator, renowned as one of the most prolific and influential figures in the history of photography. Steichen was credited with tr ...

in his world-touring

The Family of Man ''The Family of Man'' was an ambitious exhibition of 503 photography, photographs from 68 countries curated by Edward Steichen, the director of the New York City Museum of Modern Art's (MoMA) Department of Photography. According to Steichen, ...

exhibition. After the war, Florea returned to Hollywood to continue to photograph celebrities, leaving LIFE in 1949. Portraits of movie stars he made in colour in the 1950s were part of an exhibition "Masters of Starlight: Photographers in Hollywood" in 1988 at the

LACMA The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961, ...

, Los Angeles. He later became producer, director, and writer for more than 130 TV shows from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, known for his direction of episodes of

Sea Hunt ''Sea Hunt'' is an American action adventure television series that aired in syndication from 1958 to 1961 and was popular for decades afterwards. The series originally aired for four seasons, with 155 episodes produced. It stars Lloyd Bridges as ...

, The Virginian

CHiPs ''CHiPs'' is an American crime drama television series created by Rick Rosner and originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. It follows the lives of two motorcycle officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The serie ...

, and the paranormal thriller

Invisible Strangler ''Invisible Strangler'' is a 1984 American horror film directed by John Florea, an alternate cut of the 1978 film ''The Astral Factor'', also known as ''The Astral Fiend'', starring Robert Foxworth, Stefanie Powers, Cesare Danova, Sue Lyon and ...

Personal life

Married to Evelyn Barnes From 1939 to 1954. Children Gwendolyn Florea, Melanie Florea, Johnny Florea. Grandchildren, Sean Florea, Shelly Brown. Great grandchildren: Aundrea Brown, Alayna Brown, Dylan Brown. From 1955 to 1958 he was married to actress

Marjie Millar Marjorie Joy "Marjie" Millar (August 10, 1931 – April 16, 1966) was an American television and film actress. She was born Marjorie Joy Miller to George W. and Eunice Miller in Tacoma, Washington. Millar's father had changed his surname to "Mill ...

. He also had a turbulent third marriage (1968-1971) with Shirley Damery, who allegedly stabbed him in the back with a small knife following an alimony hearing in 1975. Florea sued her for $1.25 million and she in turn sued him for the same amount, alleging he had circulated to her close friends and showbiz acquaintances a copy of her arrest record and mug shot from a 1955 prostitution arrest with the intent of humiliating her. He was last married to Ruth Johnson at the time of his death.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Florea, John American television directors People from Alliance, Ohio American people of Romanian descent 1916 births 2000 deaths Life (magazine) photojournalists War photographers Film directors from Ohio