Emmy-Winning TV Director and Actor Peter Baldwin Dies at 86

Peter Baldwin, an actor-turned-television director, whose credits include The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Murphy Brown, Sanford and Sons and The Partridge Family, died Sunday at the age of 86.

Baldwin’s son, Drew Baldwin, told The Hollywood Reporter that his father died on Nov. 19. He did not give a cause of death.

Baldwin had over 100 directing credits to his name, with a career that stretched from the 1960s to the early 2000s. He began working behind the camera in 1964, helming two episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show. He went on to direct episodes of Please Don’t Eat The Daisies, Gomer Pyle: USMC, The Andy Griffith Show, The Doris Day Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch.

During his career, he earned Emmy nominations for directing the Mary Tyler Moore episode “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Rhoda” and The Wonder Years episode “The Ties That Bind — Thanksgiving.” In 1989, he won an Emmy for directing the Wonder Years episode, “Our Miss White.”

His last credit as director was a 2002 episode of Even Stevens. He directed six episodes of the Shia LaBeouf-starring Disney sitcom.

Although Baldwin made his mark in Hollywood as a TV director, he began as an actor in the early 1950s, signing a contract with Paramount. He had small roles in the classics Stalag 17, The Ten Commandments and Houdini.

He also worked in Italy briefly, working with the legendary Vittorio De Sica in Woman Times Seven (1967) and A Place For Lovers (1968).

The Illinois native, who served in the U.S. Navy for three years, is survived by his son, two daughters and wife Terry. He lived in Pebble Beach after retiring.

Photo credit: Twitter / @thr