William Sackheim, a veteran film and TV producer and writer who produced television’s “Gidget” and “The Flying Nun” and dramatic series such as “The Senator” and “Delvecchio,” has died. He was 84.
Mr. Sackheim died of a degenerative brain disease Dec. 1 at his home in Beverly Hills, his family said.
A two-time Emmy Award winner whose television career spanned the 1950s through the 1990s, Mr. Sackheim won Emmys for producing an episode of “The Alcoa/Goodyear Theatre” (1959) and the TV movie “The Law” (1975).
He produced numerous early TV movies, including “The Impatient Heart,” starring Carrie Snodgress; “The Neon Ceiling,” starring Gig Young and Lee Grant; “A Clear and Present Danger,” starring Hal Holbrook; and “The Harness,” starring Lorne Greene.
His film credits include co-producing “The In-Laws,” “Pacific Heights” and “The Hard Way”; co-writing the first Rambo movie, “First Blood”; and producing and co-writing the story for “The Competition.”
As a television producer, Mr. Sackheim had a keen eye for spotting talent. In the mid-1960s he gambled on a young Sally Field to star in the “Gidget” series.
“Sally was brought into my office by [actor] Eddie Foy Jr., who found her outside the Columbia Studio gates and asked if she was an actress,” he told United Press International in 1984. “Then he brought her to me, and I saw a spark in her that I hadn’t found in 350 girls I’d interviewed.”
Survivors include his wife, JoAnne, and two sons.
