Philip Leacock

Birthday: 1917-10-08
Deathday: 1990-07-14
Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Gender: Male

Philip David Charles Leacock (8 October 1917 – 14 July 1990) was an English television and film director and producer. His brother was documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock.

Born in London, England, Leacock spent his childhood in the Canary Islands. He began his career directing documentaries and later turned to fiction films.

He was known for his films about children, particularly The Kidnappers (US: The Little Kidnappers, 1953), which gained Honorary Juvenile Acting Oscars for two of its performers, and The Spanish Gardener (1956) starring Dirk Bogarde. He also directed Innocent Sinners (1958) with Flora Robson, The Rabbit Trap (1959) with Ernest Borgnine, and The War Lover (1962) with Steve McQueen, based on John Hersey's novel about a World War II pilot.

He began to work mainly in Hollywood, where he made Take a Giant Step (1959) about a black youth's encounter with racism and Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) about an aspiring young pianist whose mother is a drug addict. Around this time, he began to work in television, directing episodes of Gunsmoke, Route 66, The Waltons, The Defenders, and The New Land. He also directed many segments of the American series Eight Is Enough (1977–1981).

He retired in 1987 after directing a three-part television drama about the Salem witch hunts titled Three Sovereigns for Sister Sarah, which starred Vanessa Redgrave.

Leacock died while on vacation with his family in London on 14 July 1990.

Credits

Year Title
1985-05-01 Three Sovereigns for Sarah
1982-10-31 The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch
1981-10-14 The Two Lives of Carol Letner
1980-11-12 Angel City
1980-05-08 The Curse of King Tut's Tomb
1978-02-20 Wild and Wooly
1977-10-10 Killer on Board
1973-12-10 Key West
1973-11-08 The Birdmen
1973-09-18 Dying Room Only
1973-04-11 Baffled!
1973-01-01 Summer Holiday
1972-09-13 The Daughters of Joshua Cabe
1972-05-02 The Great Man's Whiskers
1972-02-05 When Michael Calls
1970-03-19 Adam's Woman
1963-07-30 Tamahine
1962-10-25 The War Lover
1962-04-14 Reach for Glory
1962-02-23 13 West Street
1961-02-06 Hand in Hand
1960-11-10 Let No Man Write My Epitaph
1959-12-01 Take a Giant Step
1959-06-01 The Rabbit Trap
1958-03-25 Innocent Sinners
1957-04-30 High Tide at Noon
1956-12-25 The Spanish Gardener
1955-08-05 Escapade
1953-12-01 The Kidnappers
1953-02-17 Appointment in London
1952-08-01 The Brave Don't Cry
1951-07-03 The Festival in London
1951-06-01 Life in Her Hands
1951-01-01 Out of True
1948-01-01 Riders of the New Forest
1940-11-07 Island People