DGA past President and DGA and Academy Award-winning director Delbert Mann will be the recipient of the Directors Guild of America's Honorary Life Member Award, DGA President Jack Shea and Awards Committee Chairperson Howard Storm announced today. The Award is given in recognition of outstanding creative achievement, or contribution to the DGA or the profession of directing.
"Del Mann's awe-inspiring work over the course of nearly fifty years and his leadership at the DGA has earned him the Award that honors his contribution to the Guild and to the profession of directing," said DGA President Jack Shea. "I am proud to say that I began my own career working as a stage manager for Del Mann. His directorial talents and his leadership skills are formidable, and he is truly deserving of this honor."
Mann, who received an M.F.A. in directing from Yale School of Drama, started working as director at the Town Theatre (Columbia, South Carolina) and as a stage manager and instructor of the Wellesley Summer Theater and School. He later worked as floor manager and assistant director for NBC in New York. But his prolific directing career started in 1949, when he began directing live dramatic programs for Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse where he directed more than 100 shows. He went on to direct productions for Playhouse 90, Omnibus, Producers Showcase, Ford Star Jubilee and DuPont Show of the Month.
Mann became a member of the DGA in 1954, and was elected to the DGA's National Board of Directors in 1958. He served as President of the Guild from 1967-1971.
Mann received the DGA's Robert B. Aldrich Award for extraordinary service to the Directors Guild of America and its membership in 1997. In 1955 he won the DGA Award and Academy Award for his direction of Marty, which also took home the Oscar for Best Picture.
Mann was also nominated by the DGA for his direction of the feature film, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960), and for his direction of the movies for television, Heidi (1968), David Copperfield (1960), Jane Eyre (1971), All Quiet on the Western Front (1979) and The Member of the Wedding (1982).
Mann's directing career has earned him numerous other awards, including the Golden Globe for Best Film for Television for All Quiet on the Western Front, and Christopher Awards for Jane Eyre, The Man Without a Country, The Ted Kennedy, Jr. Story and Against Her Will: An incident in Baltimore. He also received Emmy Nominations for directing Our Town, Breaking Up, and All Quiet on the Western Front.
Mann currently serves as a member of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust, the Directors Guild Foundation and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation.
In addition to his two terms as DGA President, Mann has served the Guild as Second Vice President, as a member of the DGA Western Directors Council, as President of the Directors Guild Educational and Benevolent Foundation (now known as the Directors Guild Foundation), and as a Trustee of the DGA Pension and Health Plans. He has also been a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Co-Chairman of the Tennessee Film Commission, President of the Cinema Circulus of the University of Southern California, Honorary Chairman of the Los Angeles Student Film Institute and a member of the Motion Picture and Television Fund.
The Honorary Life Member Award will be presented to Mann at the DGA Awards banquet on Saturday, March 9, 2002, at the Century Plaza Hotel. Mann will be the 38th recipient of the Award, which was first presented in 1938 to D.W. Griffith. Past recipients include Frank Capra, Gil Cates, Charlie Chaplin, Charles Champlin, Barry Diller, Walt Disney, Elia Kazan, David Lean, Louis B. Mayer, Jack L. Warner, Robert Wise and, most recently, Jack Valenti.
