Boris Sagal mini-bio: Boris Sagal (October 18, 1917 - May 22, 1981) was an American television and film director.
Born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, Sagal emigrated to the United States where he attended the Yale School of Drama. Probably best known for directing the cult classic film The Omega Man, Sagal had a long and relatively undistinguished career in Hollywood as a television director. His many TV credits include episodes of The Twilight Zone, "T.H.E. Cat", Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Columbo, Peter Gunn, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He also directed the 1972 television adaptation of Percy MacKaye's play The Scarecrow, for PBS. He was nominated for Emmys for his direction of the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man and, posthumously, Masada.
Sagal was killed in a freak accident during production of the made-for-TV movie World War III, when he was nearly decapitated after walking into the rotor blades of a helicopter in the parking lot of the Timberline Lodge in Oregon - the same lodge used for the exterior aerial shots of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. Sagal was replaced with another director the very next day.
Sagal's death is eerie in that among his directorial credits was the pilot episode of the popular TV series Combat!. This series starred Vic Morrow, who also died from being struck by the rotor blade of a helicopter within a year of Sagal, and also while shooting a film on location. In Morrow's case, that film was The Twilight Zone.
He is the father of Katey Sagal, Joe Sagal, and Doublemint twins Jean Sagal and Liz Sagal by his first wife, Sara Zwilling, who died in 1975. His second wife was Marge Champion whom he married on January 1, 1977 until his own death in 1981 in Portland, Oregon.
There is a directing fellowship in his name at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts.
Date of Death: 22 May 1981, Portland, Oregon, USA. (killed by a helicopter blade).
In 1955 he staged a production of the Maxwell Anderson play, "Lost in the Stars" at the Ebony Showcase Theatre, operated by Nick Stewart. Al Freeman Jr. and 'William Schallert' also participated in the production.
He was killed early in the production of the TV film World War III (1982) (TV) in a helicopter accident in Oregon. He had just returned from filming aerial shots, his helicopter landing in the parking lot of the Timberline lodge on Mt. Hood (the exteriors location from The Shining (1980)). Preoccupied with his work, he inadvertently turned the wrong way upon getting out of the helicopter, walking directly into the rear rotor blade; he died of severe head and shoulder injuries after emergency surgery 60 miles away in Portland. Astonishingly, filming resumed the very next day with a new director.
Father of Katey Sagal, Joe Sagal, Jean Sagal, and Liz Sagal.
Ironically, his work includes the pilot episode of the TV series "Combat!" (1962), which starred Vic Morrow. Two decades after collaborating, Sagal and Morrow would die almost exactly the same way (struck by a helicopter's rotor blade)...within a year of each other, both while shooting a movie on location. For Sagal, it was World War III (1982) (TV); for Morrow, it was Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983).
