William Sackheim, 84, Produced ‘Gidget’
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Emmy winner William Sackheim, who produced television shows including “Gidget” and “The Flying Nun” and co-wrote the first “Rambo” movie, died Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 84.
Sackheim won Emmys for producing an episode of “The Alcoa/Goodyear Theatre”(1959) and the TV movie “The Law” (1975).
He produced several early TV movies, including “The Impatient Heart,” starring Carrie Snodgress; “The Neon Ceiling,” starring Gig Young and Lee Grant; “A Clear and Present Danger,” starring Hal Holbrook, and “The Harness,” starring Lorne Greene.
He co-produced films including “The In-Laws,” “Pacific Heights,” and “The Hard Way.” He also co-wrote “First Blood,” the first in the “Rambo” series, and produced and co-wrote the story for “The Competition.”
As a television producer in the mid-1960s, he gave a young actress named Sally Field the chance to star in the “Gidget” series. Sackheim also hired the young Steven Spielberg to direct Joan Crawford in the 1969 pilot of “Night Gallery,” a Rod Serling TV series.
He gave actor Judd Hirsch a big break by casting him in the 1974 TV movie “The Law,” which he co-wrote and which served as the pilot for a 1975 miniseries.
Hirsch then starred in the series “Delvecchio,” a 1976-77 police drama, which Sackheim executive-produced.
