At an emotional September 12 memorial service, family members, long time friends and fellow DGA members shared memories of and paid tribute to longtime DGA National Board member Daniel Petrie, Sr. who died of cancer on August 22 at his home in Los Angeles.
"An event like this is a difficult convergence of joy and sorrow," said DGA President Michael Apted at the service. "Joy as we hear from family, friends and colleagues about the great achievements in Dan's life, the excellence and variety of his remarkable body of work, and his unstinting and important to this Guild and the industry as a whole. Sorrow in the reminders of how much we miss him and how much he is in our hearts."
Other speakers included AFI Director and CEO Jean Picker Firstenberg; producer Ron Silverman; actor and DGA director member Beau Bridges; AMPAS Past President Fay Kanin; Member of the Senate of Canada for the Highlands, Nova Scotia, Senator Al Graham; actor and DGA director member Kiefer Sutherland, DGA Secretary-Treasurer Gilbert Cates; actress Jane Alexander; sons WGA President Daniel Petrie, Jr. and DGA National Board Alternate Member Donald Petrie; actor and DGA director member Sidney Poitier and The Humanitas Prize President Father Frank Desiderio.
"Dan Petrie was really a son of the Directors Guild," Gil Cates said. With humor and gratitude, Cates detailed the many years of Petrie's service to the Guild - an officer, numerous positions on the Guild's National Board of Directors, the Western Directors Council, serving as Chairman of the Negotiating Committee in 1999, and more. For his service, Petrie was awarded the Robert B. Aldrich Award in 1996.
During his directing career, Petrie received 11 DGA Award nominations and won the DGA Award four times. In 1971 he won in the Dramatic Series, Night category for his direction of the episode "Hands of Love" for the series The Man and the City. He won in the Movies for Television category in 1976 for Eleanor and Franklin, in 1977 for Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years, and in 1984 for The Dollmaker. Petrie's first nomination was for the feature film A Raisin in the Sun in 1961. He was also nominated in 1962 (The Benefactor) and 1969 (Silent Night, Lonely Night),, when the DGA only had one overall television category. His other nominations included three for the television movies My Name is Bill W. in 1989, Kissinger and Nixon in 1995 and Inherit the Wind in 1999 and one for the children's program for Walter and Henry in 2001.
The memories shared at the service were often humorous and touching. Daniel Petrie, Jr. recalled asking for his father's advice. He was ready to follow in his father's directing footsteps and asked, "What is the single most important thing for a director to do before beginning his work?" His father characteristically replied, "Get a flu shot."
"Everybody has so many stories about Dad," Donald Petrie added. "The funny thing is, we haven't heard those stories just in the last couple of weeks. I grew up hearing stories about my Dad. I couldn't walk onto a set when I was a young actor, or when I started directing, and somebody had worked with Dad and came to tell me a story about how he was funny, how he taught, or how he helped when it was needed."
As proof, Keifer Sutherland spoke of how as a beginning 16-year-old actor on Daniel Petrie's film The Bay Boy, the director had heard him say he wanted to be a camera operator. Petrie quietly pulled him aside and said, "Stop talking like that. You have a father who is one of the most celebrated, famous and talented actors in film. Your mother is the grand dame of stage in Canada. And [you're thinking] why on Earth would you want to get into the middle of that? I understand all of that. But, you have talent; I believe you have talent. And I'm not going to let you run away from it because you're scared of what people might say, or think, or most importantly because you're scared about whether or not you'll fulfill that."
"Those words have stayed with me my whole life," Sutherland continued. "And I just want to tell Dan, from the bottom of my heart, that he affected me, and affected everyone he's touched, ... and thank you."
