Oscar-Winning Creator of ‘The Brady Bunch’ Effect Dies at 88

Christopher Chapman, whose Expo 67 film A Place to Stand won the Academy Award for the best live action short in 1968, has died. He was 88.

The Globe and Mail newspaper in a death notice said Chapman died on Oct. 24 at a long-term care facility in Uxbridge, Ontario, surrounded by his family. His 1967 film A Place to Stand, which received two Oscar nominations, also pioneered the use of multiple screen imagery used in the classic opening title sequence for the popular 1970s show The Brady Bunch, where nine frames on one screen captured shifting footage of family members.

Hollywood director Norman Jewison credited Chapman’s “multiple dynamic images” process for inspiring the opening scene in his 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair. The split-screen technique, where a number of small screens, all full motion, move around the larger screen, was also used in The Boston Strangler (1968) and Airport (1970).

Chapman, born in Toronto in 1927, specialized in films on nature and the environment. He was named to the Order of Canada in 1987, and earned a Doctor of Laws from Ryerson University in 2000. Christopher also served as president of both the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and the Directors Guild of Canada.

He leaves behind his wife, Barbara-Glen Chapman, and his son, Julian Chapman.

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