Alvin Ganzer


Alvin Ganzer was an American film and television director.

Early life

Ganzer was born in 1911 in Cold Spring, Minnesota.

Career

As a young man, Ganzer moved to California, and in 1932 was given a job at Paramount Pictures in its casting department. He worked for Paramount as an assistant and second unit director on many feature films from 1934 through 1954. His first directorial feature film credit is for The Girls of Pleasure Island ; he had been assisting F. Hugh Herbert, who became ill during production. From 1954–1979 he was a prolific director of episodes for television series, and directed a handful of additional feature films.

Personal life

He was married to Murial Ganzer, and they had a son Alvin, and a daughter, Carolynn Jacobs Finnegan, all of whom survived him.
He died on 3 January 2009, in Poʻipū, Hawaii, where he and his wife had moved about six years earlier to be close to their son.

Selected filmography (as director)