The Directors Guild of America mourns the loss of veteran Associate Director Robert Caminiti, recipient of the 1999 Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award.
A DGA member since 1966, Caminiti was first elected to the Eastern AD/SM/PA Council in 1986. For three terms, Bob served as a member or alternate on the Council and was a member of the Guild's 1987 Negotiating Committee. He had previously served as a shop steward at NBC in the 1980s.
Caminiti’s career in the industry began in 1956 when he joined NBC as a mimeograph operator. In the early 1960s he became a Stage Manager on the game show Concentration, followed by stints on The Doctors, Jeopardy and The Tonight Show. Eventually he began filling in as an Associate Director on Jeopardy and moved into that post full-time in 1967. He also held that post in 1968 for NBC's presidential primaries and the tumultuous Democratic National Convention. Through the 1970s he worked on most of NBC's game shows including What's My Line?, To Tell the Truth, Jackpot, Three on a Match, Winning Streak, and Tom Snyder’s late night talk show, Tomorrow. In 1982 he moved to the legendary sketch comedy program, Saturday Night Live, where he served as an Associate Director for nearly 40 years and 270 episodes. In that post he was part of six DGA Award-winning directorial teams for episodes directed by Don Roy King and Beth McCarthy-Miller.
In recognition of his service to the industry and the Guild, Caminiti was named the recipient of the Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award in 1999.
