David Dortort
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Here you can learn about David Dortort’s career and private life facts, read the latest news, find all the awards he has won and watch photos and videos.
PERSONAL DATA OF DAVID DORTORT
Born in: NEW YORK (USA)
Born on: 23/10/1916
He dies at: WESTWOOD, California (USA)
BIOGRAPHY OF DAVID DORTORT
Writer and producer. The creator of Bonanza, the first color western series on American TV, was born in New York to a Jewish family from Eastern Europe. To escape the traditions and rules imposed by religion, his father, Beryl Dortort, decides to change his name to Benjamin Katz and start a new life that will lead him to become a successful insurer. After graduating from Brooklyn, David attends the City College of New York where he studies not only American history, but also Creative Writing. In class he meets Rose Seldin who becomes his wife in 1940 and convinces him to change his name and take back his father’s real surname, Dortort. The two, who will have two children, will remain together until her death in 2007. Called to arms after Pearl Harbor, he remains stationed in Torrance, California, where he dedicates himself to the creation of a newspaper and the realization of shows in the field hospitals played by Hollywood stars. The childhood spent in the Brooklyn neighborhood, in an area famous for its high density of crime, becomes privileged material to draw from when in 1947 he wrote his first novel “Burial of the Fruit”, followed two years later by “The Post” of Honor “. His first feature is optioned for a film, but the project remains buried in a drawer. His debut in the world of cinema had to wait until 1952, when he wrote the screenplay for “The Daredevil” by Nicholas Ray, a western starring Susan Hayward and Robert Mitchum, together with Horace McCoy. The following year he also lands on television, collaborating in the drafting of an episode of the “Racket Squad” series. Between 1954 and 1955 he was called to CBS for the legal series “The Public Defender” and from that moment he lined up one success after another: from “Fireside Theater” (1953-1954) to “Waterfront” ( 1954-1955) up to “Lassie” (1956) which exploits the popularity of the characters launched by the films with Elizabeth Taylor and which earned him his first Emmy nomination. In 1956 he returned to the cinema with “Hours of anguish”, a detective story centered on a kidnapping directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Natalie Wood, and with another western, “Retaliation”, by George Sherman; the following year he wrote Gordon Douglas’s “Distant Horizons”, with Alan Ladd and Virginia Mayo. In 1958, thanks to his experience as a valid television screenwriter, he launched into a career as a producer with “The Restless Gun”. The western series centered on the character of Vint Bonner, played by John Payne, a seductive gunslinger capable of making good triumph in every episode, gets a great success and is scheduled for three years. The tastes of the public, however, are changing and, riding the wave, in 1959, he conceives a new model of the western series, “Bonanza”, shot entirely in color. The cast includes actors such as Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker and finally the promising Michael Landon. The show, which aired for the first time on Saturday 12 September 1959 at the same time as an episode of the “Perry Mason” series, had an overwhelming success, so much so that it was scheduled for 14 seasons, until 1973 when, due to the sudden death of Blocker , the series is deleted. The difficulty in detaching oneself from characters so loved by the public gives rise to other TV series such as “Bonanza”: “The Next Generation” (1988), “Bonanza: The Return” (1993), “Bonanza: Under Attack” (1995) and “Ponderosa” (2001), a real prequel to the series. He dies at the age of 93.
THE MOST RECENT FILMS BY DAVID DORTORT
Distant Horizons (THE BIG LAND)
Role: Screenwriter
Year: 1957
HOURS OF ANGUISH (A CRY IN THE NIGHT)
Role: Screenwriter
Year: 1956
REPRESAL (REPRISAL!)
Role: Screenwriter
Year: 1956
THE TEMERARY
Role: Screenwriter
Year: 1952 Go to the Complete Filmography
THE MOST RECURRING GENRES OF DAVID DORTORT
Western: 50% Drama: 25% Adventure: 25%
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