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Biography: Ralph Nelson

Born in New York City, Ralph Nelson first became interested in theater while attending Bryant High School, and won a New York Times oratorical contest in 1932. He came to Broadway as an errand boy and ascended to the stage, working with Katharine Cornell, Leslie Howard, and the Lunts during the '30s. He was part of the stage company of Irving Berlin's This Is the Army during World War II, and managed to write an award-winning one-act play while serving as an Army Air Force flight instructor. His first full-length play, The Wind Is Ninety, also won an award from the National Theater Conference. Nelson came to early television as an actor, but quickly moved into the director's chair, and it is estimated that he was director and/or producer for upwards of 1000 presentations during the next decade. He was hired to direct the premiere telecast of Playhouse 90 -- where he earned an Emmy for his direction of Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight (which he later directed on screen), and was also a mainstay of such drama shows as G.E. Theater and Lux Theater. In 1963, Nelson directed the topical drama Lillies of the Field, which earned Sidney Poitier an Oscar as Best Actor. His subsequent films, including Fate Is the Hunter, Soldier in the Rain, and Father Goose, were all successful and remain interesting to look at, despite the fact that only the last has aged well. Nelson moved into serious westerns earlier than almost any other American filmmaker of the 1960's with Duel at Diablo (1966), but his major film of this period was Charly (1968), a drama for which Cliff Robertson won an Oscar. He moved back toward topical political subjects with the racial drama ...Tick...Tick...Tick... (1970) and Soldier Blue (1970), and made the only serious drama ever to come out of Hollywood about South Africa and apartheid, The Wilby Conspiracy (1975), starring Poitier and Michael Caine. Nelson's later films, including A Hero Ain't Nothing but a Sandwich (1977) were passionate and finely made, but embraced subjects to which the public in the post-Watergate era failed to connect. He returned to directing for television during the final years of his career, and scored a modest success with Christmas Lillies of the Field (1979), a follow-up to his 1963 hit. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide less

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Christmas Lilies of the Field (1979)
Tags: Drama Religious Drama
Length: 98min
Originally made for television as a sequel to the classic Lilies of the Field, this film concerns an ex-soldier turned handyman (Billy Dee Williams) who returns to the Arizona chapel he built earlier. Encouraged by five nuns, he builds both an...
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The Lady of the House (1978)
Tags: Docudrama Drama
Length: 100min
Dyan Cannon stars in this film inspired by the true story of Sally Stanford, who rose from notoriety as the madam of a famous San Francisco brothel of the 1930s to winning election as the city's mayor in 1976. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
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Because He's My Friend (1978)
Cast: Ralph Nelson
Tags: Drama Family Drama
Length: 91min
Because He's My Friend was directed for Australian television by American TV veteran Ralph Nelson. Karen Black and Keir Dullea play the parents of a mentally retarded teenager (superbly played by Warwick Poulson). The boy's condition effects the...
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A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich (1977)
Cast: Cicely Tyson Paul Winfield
Tags: Urban Drama Addiction Drama Drama
Length: 107min
Adapted from Alice Childress' inspirational novel of the same name, director Ralph Nelson's sentimental addiction drama tells the story of an intelligent yet alienated ghetto youth seduced into the world of hard drugs. Unable to stand being in the...
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Flight of the Doves (1971)
Cast: Dorothy McGuire Stanley Holloway
Tags: Adventure Drama Adventure Drama Family
Length: 101min
Two children set out in search of freedom and a loving home in this adventure drama based on a novel by Walter Macken. Finn Dove (Jack Wild) and his sister Derval (Helen Raye), a pair of children living in England, are tired of the tyranny of their...
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Tick, Tick, Tick (1970)
Cast: Fredric March George Kennedy
Tags: Drama
Length: 100min
When Jimmy Price (Jim Brown) wins an upset victory for sheriff, he becomes the first black man ever to hold the job (or any elective office) in anyone's memory in his rural southern county. He also sets off an ominous rumblings as the entire county...
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Created to Kill (1976)
Cast: Rock Hudson Diane Ladd Roddy McDowall
Tags: Action Thriller Science Fiction
Length: 108min
In this thriller, a scientist (Rock Hudson) attempts to engineer the perfect woman in a test-tube and ends up not with a beautiful lover, but instead a ruthless killer. The film is also known as Created to Kill. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
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The Wilby Conspiracy (1975)
Cast: Sidney Poitier Michael Caine Nicol Williamson
Tags: Thriller Political Thriller Escape Film
Length: 101min
The Wilby Conspiracy is set in South Africa, at a time when Apartheid was the order of the day. Political activist Shack Twala (Sidney Poitier) finds an unlikely -- and reluctant -- ally in the form of the British Keogh (Michael Caine). Both Twala and...
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The Wrath of God (1972)
Cast: Rita Hayworth Robert Mitchum Frank Langella
Tags: Western Comedy Adventure Satire Parody/Spoof
Length: 111min
This misunderstood film is a satirical western, written, directed, and produced by Ralph Nelson, which he adapted from the book by James Graham (a pseudonym for Jack Higgins) In a restless Central American nation in the 1920s, Van Horne (Robert...
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Soldier Blue (1970)
Cast: Donald Pleasence Candice Bergen Jorge Rivero
Tags: Revisionist Western Western Historical Film
Length: 109min
A cavalry unit in Colorado is conducting two important cargoes to Fort Reunion, home of the 11th Colorado Volunteers: Cresta Marybelle Lee (Candice Bergen), the fiancée of an officer in the unit until two years ago, when she was taken by the...
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Ralph Nelson

Biography: Ralph Nelson

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