Robert Stevenson

Robert Stevenson was a director whose flair for whimsy garnered him a role as one of the silver screen's most distinguished wizards of childlike wonder. Starting out in his native England, he became known for helming (and writing) several royal sagas, B-movie thrillers, and high-minded horrors, most notably the darkly ontological Boris Karloff chiller "The Man Who Changed His Mind" (1936). By the time he relocated to Hollywood in the 1940s, however, he had settled on the more stately side of his creative leanings, and his ensuing involvement with a fervidly romantic rendition of the literary classic "Jane Eyre" set him on a path peppered by frequent cinematic adaptations. His proclivities inevitably landed him in the employment of the like-minded Walt Disney Pictures, for whom he exclusively directed nearly 20 book-based family adventures between the late '50s and mid-'70s, including the rural tearjerker "Old Yeller" and the wildly inventive witching tale "Bedknobs and Broomsticks." His most celebrated film remains "Mary Poppins," the phenomenally popular movie musical about a delightful, supernatural nanny and her endless bag of tricks. Having retired from Disney (and the directing business altogether) by the onset of the '80s, Stevenson died several years thereafter at the age of 81.