Marc Daniels

Marc Daniels, born Danny Marcus on January 27, 1912, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was an American stage performer and television director. He died on April 23, 1989, in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 77, from congestive heart failure, and is buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.

A graduate of the University of Michigan, Daniels appeared on Broadway in 1935 in Dead End before his career shifted toward directing. Following military service in the U.S. Army that extended through 1946, he was brought on by CBS to helm Ford Theater, the network's first dramatic anthology program, where he developed his command of live television direction.

Daniels went on to direct the opening 38 episodes of I Love Lucy, one of the earliest filmed television series. Working alongside his wife, Emily Daniels, and cinematographer Karl Freund, he was among those credited with pioneering the three-camera filming technique as an alternative to the single-camera approach then standard in the industry. He also recommended Vivian Vance for the role of Ethel Mertz. Daniels later departed the series for a higher-paying position, remarking in a 1977 interview that at the time, no one involved understood they were making history. Near the end of his career, he collaborated again with Lucille Ball on her final series, Life with Lucy, in 1986.

Beyond I Love Lucy, Daniels directed episodes of Where's Raymond?, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Hogan's Heroes, Alice, Fame, and The Andros Targets. He is particularly recognized among science fiction audiences for directing fifteen episodes of Star Trek, among them "Mirror, Mirror" and "Space Seed," and for writing one episode of the animated Star Trek series, "One of Our Planets is Missing." He also appeared, without credit, as Dr. Jackson Roykirk via a photograph in the Star Trek episode "The Changeling," which he directed.

Throughout his career, Daniels received two Primetime Emmy nominations, one Daytime Emmy nomination, two Directors Guild of America award nominations, and four Hugo Award nominations. He won one Hugo Award in 1967, a joint honor shared with Gene Roddenberry for the Star Trek episode "The Menagerie" in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation.