Bruce Bilson, Emmy Winner and Rachel Bilson’s Grandfather, Dead at 97

Emmy-winning director and actor Bruce Bilson has died. He was 97.

His daughter, Hollywood producer Julie Bilson Ahlberg, told THR that he died peacefully last Friday in Los Angeles.

The Bilsons are a multi-generational Hollywood family; Bruce was a fourth-generation descendant in the cinema-heavy lineage. He is best known for his work directing TV series like The Andy Griffith Show, Hogan’s Heroes, and Get Smart.

Over the course of his five decade career, he amassed nearly 400 on-screen credits. He started his career with Lucille Ball’s production company Desilu, and directed over 100 episodes of half-hour shows before moving up to hourlong episodes with ABC’s 1972 series Alias Smith and Jones.

Eventually, he went on to direct episodes of The Odd Couple, Love, American Style, B.J. and the Bear, Barney Miller, The Patty Duke Show, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, The Doris Day Show, The Fall Guy, Hotel, Dinosaurs, The Sentinel, Viper, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Partridge Family, Bonanza, Green Acres, M*A*S*H, The Brady Bunch, and many, many more.

He won an Emmy in 1968 for directing “Maxwell Smart, Private Eye,” a season three episode of Get Smart that riffed on the classic noir film The Maltese Falcon starring Humphrey Bogart. (Funny enough, Bilson had a small part in Bogart’s 1945 film Conflict.)

He is survived by his wife, actress Renne Jarrett; his son, the screenwriter Danny Bilson; his daughter, producer Julie Bilson Ahlberg; his granddaughter, actress Rachel Bilson; his brother, his stepson, and his six other grandchildren.