Biography
Hugh C Daly was born in Washington Heights Manhattan. He attended Incarnation Grade School and George Washington High School. In 1960, He won the CYO Best Actor Award and was given the lead role as Finian in the School's production of Broadway's Finian's Rainbow. Upon graduating from High School, he won a Scholarship to The Gene Frankel Drama School to continue his love of acting. It was about that time that he discovered that he also had a flair for working behind the camera. He then moved on to NYU and studied Film Production via night courses under the legendary Saul Taffert, while working full time at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. During his tenure at Presbyterian Hospital, Hughie was called upon to film educational and surgical procedures in his off duty hours. In surgical scrubs, Hughie stood side by side with the surgical team and filmed over 100 operations for the Orthopaedic Department. Later, when he was promoted to the Harkness Eye Institute, he spent many hours in the opthalmology surgical suite where he worked with members of the Carl Zeiss Corp. in wiring the operating microscopes to video outsource into the Institute's teaching classrooms. Hughie founded JHD Productions Ltd. with then partner Jeffrey Hopkins on August 29th,1979. JHD is a combination of both names using the common H.
In 1982, the business moved to Deer Park on Long Island. Still living and working in Washington Heights, he commuted back and forth from the Heights to Long Island until 1986 when he left his position of Director of Ancillary Services at the Harkness Eye Institute and joined Jeffery as President of JHD Productions and a permanent Long Island resident. In 1990, Jeffrey Hopkins left JHD to form a wedding video production company. Hughie decided to keep the JHD name and the two remained good friends. As the business grew, JHD moved three separate times into larger and larger spaces within the same building. In 1991, the company moved into a 2000 sq.ft. studio facility and in 1993 was joined by Michael Russo, a wedding videographer to help with camera and other various positions. In 2001, independent filmmaker, Brian Michael Finn, joined JHD as a freelance editor and crew person (who, coincidentally, was born on the same exact day as the business' founding - August 29th, 1979). Brian became the new Vice President of JHD in January of 2010.
Hughie also served as Director of Photography and advisor to independent filmmakers. In 1976, he became a member of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and was certified in electronic cinematography by the Panavision Corporation in 1984.
In his later years, he developed kidney failure and was forced to be on dialysis. This condition led to swelling in his legs and water blisters that eventually became infected. In 2021, he was hospitalized for an amputation of his leg and died shortly after on December 11th. The exact cause of death has not been disclosed. At that same time, Brian Michael Finn was shooting scenes at the JHD studio for his film, Trip to the Moon. The next day, while preparing for the day's shoot, Brian got the news of Hughie's passing, but continued with the production since he knew that's what Hughie would have wanted.
