Daniel Petrie

Daniel Petrie

Everett Collection

Daniel Petrie

Director, writer
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Daniel Petrie

Director, writer

November 26

Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada

August 22, 2004

Daniel Petrie was a Canadian film, television, and stage director.

Petrie was known for directing grounded human dramas often dealing with taboo subject matter. He was one of several Canadian-born expatriate filmmakers, including Norman Jewison and Sidney J. Furie, to find critical and commercial success overseas in the 1960s due to the limited opportunities in the Canadian film industry at the time. He was the patriarch of the Petrie filmmaking family, with four of his children all working in the film industry.

Beginning his career in television, he made his critical and popular breakthrough directing the 1961 film version of the Lorraine Hansberry play A Raisin in the Sun, which won the Gary Cooper Award at the Cannes Film Festival. He directed over 90 films and television programs until his retirement in 2001, winning several accolades (including three Primetime Emmy Awards) in the process. His semi-autobiographical 1984 film The Bay Boy won the Genie Award for Best Motion Picture.

Petrie died August 22, 2004 in Los Angeles, California. He was 83.

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