Born August 12, 1916 in Long Island City, New York, Ralph Nelson had a troubled childhood.  A judge once described him as “potentially the most juvenile criminal in New York.”  His life turned around after a high school teacher got him interested in acting.

Nelson won an oratory award sponsored by the New York Times in 1932 which led to his casting in minor roles in five Broadway plays between 1934 and 1936, the year he married aspiring actress Celeste Holm.

Nelson and Holm were married for three years.  Their son Ted Nelson is a renowned scientist and internet pioneer.  Ralph Nelson would marry two more times and have three more children.  Future Oscar winner  Holm would marry four more times and have one more child.  Ted was raised mostly by his grandparents in Chicago and later Greenwich Village.

He served in the Army Air Force during World War II, during which he wrote two plays that were presented on Broadway, 1943’s Army-Play-by-Play and 1945’s The Wind Is Ninety.  He was married to second wife Rachel Bahnsen from 1945-1947.

Nelson had a long career in TV beginning in 1949.  From 1949-1953, he directed 133 live episodes of Mama, the TV version of I Remember Mama starring Peggy Wood in the role played in the 1948 by Irene Dunne.  He married third wife Barbara Powers in 1954 with whom he would remain married until his death.

Notable productions that Nelson later directed for TV included the 1957 version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Julie Andrews and eleven episodes of Playhouse 90 winning a 1957 Emmy for his direction of that series’ Requiem for a Heavyweight.  He made his film debut directing the 1962 film version of Requiem for a Heavyweight.

He may have come late to his screen career, but he wasted no time in establishing himself, earning an Oscar nomination for only his second film, 1963’s Lilies of the Field for which Sidney Poitier won a Best Actor Oscar.  Subsequent 1960s films include 1963’s Soldier in the Rain with Steve McQueen and Jackie Gleason, 1964’s Fate Is the Hunter with Glenn Ford and Nancy Kwan and Father Goose with Cary Grant and Leslie Caron, 1965’s Once a Thief with Alain Delon and Ann-Margret, 1966’s Duel at Diablo with James Garner and Sidney Poitier, 1967’s Counterpoint with Chalton Heston and Maximilian Schell, and 1968’s Charly for which Cliff Robertson won an Oscar.

Nelson’s 1970s output included 1970’s Tick, Tick, Tick with Jim Brown and Fredric March and Soldier Blue with Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss, 1971’s Flight of the Doves with Ron Moody and Dorothy McGuire, 1972’s The Wrath of God with Robert Mitchum and Rita Hayworth, 1975’s The Wilby Conspiracy with Michael Caine and Sidney Poitier, and his last theatrical film, 1977’s A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich with Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield.

Nelson later directed four films for TV including two in 1979, You Can’t Go Home Again with Lee Grant and Chris Sarandon and Christmas Lilies of the Field, a sequel to Lilies of the Field, with Billy Dee Williams and Maria Schell.

Ralph Nelson died December 21, 1987 at 71.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

MAMA (1949-1953)

Nelson directed 133 live episodes of this, one of the best loved series of early TV based on the book, Mama’s Bank Account, and the subsequent play and film, I Remember Mama.  Actress-singer Peggy Wood, later Oscar nominated for her Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music, was nominated for an Emmy at the end of the show’s run in 1957.  The show itself was nominated for an Emmy in 1949.  The cast included Judson Laire as Papa and Dick Van Patten as older brother Nels.  Rosemary Rice was Katrin, the show’s narrator, and Robin Morgan was the younger sister Dagmar.  The Bad Seed’s  Patty McCormack was Cousin Ingeborg.

CINDERELLA (1957)

Nelson directed Julie Andrews and cast live in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s beloved version of the classic fairy tale with a supporting cast that included Jon Cypher as the Prince, Edie Adams as the Fairy godmother, Ilka Chase as the Stepmother, Kaye Ballard and Alice Ghostley as the Stepsisters, and Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney as the King and Queen.  The timeless score included “In My Own Litle Corner”, “Impossible: It’s Possible”, “Ten Minutes Ago”, and “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful?”.  Two later productions were done for TV with the musical finally making it to Broadway in the 2012-2013 season.

LILIES OF THE FIELD (1963)

Nelson received an Oscar nomination for Best Director for this, just his second film.  It was nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Black-and-White Cinematography, and won Best Actor for Sidney Poitier as an itinerant handyman coerced into building a chapel for a group of nuns led by Oscar nominated Lilia Skala.  It was filmed on singer Linda Ronstadt’s father’s ranch in Tucson, Arizona.  Nelson later produced a failed 1970 Broadway musical version called Look to the Lilies with Shirley Booth and a 1979 TV movie sequel, Christmas Lilies of the Field with Billy Dee Williams and Maria Schell.

FATHER GOOSE (1964)

The film is best known for Cary Grant’s portrayal of an unkempt lout of a World War II lookout and spy for the British in the South Seas.  His casting against type was even touted as a possible Oscar nominee but the film received just three Oscar nods, winning for Best Original Screenplay.  Leslie Caron is the French diplomat’s daughter that he reluctantly rescues along with seven little girls, the daughters of other diplomats.  Trevor Howard is the harbormaster to whom he reports.  Sandwiched between 1963’s Charade and 1966’s Walk Don’t Run this would be the second to last of the legendary actor’s films, the only one in which he was not immaculately groomed.

CHARLY (1968)

While Nelson was unable to direct a second actor to an Oscar with Cary Grant in Father Goose, he was able to accomplish the feat with Cliff Robertson in this film version of Flowers for Algernon about an intellectually challenged man undergoes an experiment that turns him temporarily into a genius.  Robertson has played the role in an earlier TV version and bought the rights to the film so that he wouldn’t lose another TV role to another actor as he had lost Days of Wine and Roses to Jack Lemmon.  Claire Bloom co-starred as Robertson’s teacher with whom he becomes romantically involved.  Lilia Skala played the doctor who conducted the experiment.

RALPH NELSON AND OSCAR

Lilies of the Field (1963) – nominated – Best Director