Philip S. Goodman - S 2015
Philip S. Goodman, who wrote and directed for film, television and the theater, died Saturday at his home in New York City, his son-in-law, Marc Fisher, said. He was 89.
Goodman penned episodes of such 1950s and ’60s TV shows such as Rocky King, Detective, Profiles in Courage, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Johnny Staccato, starring John Cassavetes.
He directed the United Pictures International feature We Shall Return (1963), a story about anti-Castro Cuban fighters in Miami that starred Cesar Romero.
A graduate of Brooklyn College and the University of Southern California, Goodman served in the U.S. Army during World War II.
At the Actors Studio in New York, where he was a member of the Directors Group, he helmed workshops of his plays Love Is a Candy Cane and This Notoriety Business.
For many years, Goodman wrote and directed TV documentaries and industrial films. In 1970, he penned three episodes of National Educational Television’s Our Vanishing Wilderness, one of the first series to focus on environmental issues.
He also helmed TV commercials for Coca-Cola, RCA, Revlon and Rheingold beer, among many others.
Later in life, Goodman turned to musical theater. A Good Man, with book by Goodman and music by Ray Leslee, was produced by the Vienna Chamber Opera in 2006 and selected for the National Music Theater Conference’s 2012 season at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut.
Survivors also include his daughter Jody, son Nicholas, a film producer, and two grandchildren.
