In February 2019, renown Stage Manager Joseph L. Dicso passed away.
A DGA member since 1956, Dicso served four terms on the Eastern AD/SM/PA Council from the mid-1970s until the latter half of the 1980. He also served on the Negotiating Committees in 1968 and 1971, and as a shop steward and captain of the Strike Committee. In recognition of his service to the industry and to the Guild, in 1997 he was presented with the Franklin Schaffner Achievement Award, the highest honor the DGA can bestow upon an Associate Director or Stage Manager.
Born in Komoro, Hungary in 1929, Dicso’s career stretched back to the live shows of the ‘50s and included such classics as Omnibus and The Howdy Doody Show; game shows including What’s My Line?, To Tell the Truth and the original incarnations of Jeopardy and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?; and daytime dramas including Another World and The Doctors. But he was perhaps best known for his twenty years as a Stage Manager on Saturday Night Live, with nearly 300 episodes to his credit from the 1970s to the 1990s.
