Biography
Emmy Award-winning director Fielder Cook began his career in television's early days, starting at Lux Video Theatre in 1950. He also worked on other live-TV anthology series like Studio One (1948) and The Kaiser Aluminum Hour (1956), where he contributed teleplays and served as a producer. Unlike many respected directors from live television who transitioned to feature films, Cook remained devoted to TV. Reflecting on directing the final episodes of both The Kraft Television Theatre (1953) and Playhouse 90 (1956), he remarked, "I was beginning to feel like the mortician of television." Over his career, Cook earned nine Emmy nominations—seven for best director and two for best producer—and won three awards (two for directing, one for producing).
Born James Fielder Cook on March 9, 1923, in Atlanta, Georgia, he was raised in Tampa, Florida. After graduating cum laude with a literature degree from Washington and Lee University, he served as a Navy officer during World War II. Post-war, he studied Elizabethan drama at the University of Birmingham in England before returning to the U.S. to pursue television instead of theater. His directing debut was on Lux Video Theatre.
Cook gained critical acclaim in 1955 directing Rod Serling’s Patterns, one of live TV’s most successful productions. Following its broadcast, CBS-TV owner William Paley called the control room for the first time ever, saying, "Tell everyone, especially Rod Serling, that tonight we put television about ten years ahead." Serling won an Emmy for the teleplay, which was adapted into a 1956 film directed by Cook. Although he occasionally directed feature films, television remained his primary focus.
Unlike peers such as Franklin J. Schaffner and Sidney Lumet who transitioned fully to films, Cook chose to stay in television. In a 1966 Los Angeles Times interview, he said, "I went back to TV because I could do what I wanted to do. You learn from your mistakes with nobody telling you what to do." He prioritized the story above all, valuing the writer’s vision. In the era of live TV, writers like Serling and Paddy Chayefsky enjoyed respect and influence akin to theater playwrights. In a 1997 UPI interview, Cook stated, "As a director I tell a story, but it's not my story," emphasizing his commitment to realizing the writer’s intentions.
Beyond teleplays and TV movies, Cook directed episodic television. His first Emmy nominations came in 1961 for producing and directing Big Deal in Laredo (1962). He won two Emmy Awards in 1966 for producing and directing the musical adaptation Brigadoon. In 1971, he earned an Emmy for directing The Price and directed The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, which led to the TV series The Waltons and garnered him another Emmy nomination in 1972. Subsequent Emmy nods followed for directing the pilot of Beacon Hill (1975) and the TV special Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys (1976).
Cook continued directing for TV and occasionally for film until 1989. His notable TV movies include Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979), the Emmy-winning Gauguin the Savage (1980), and the Frances Farmer biopic Will There Really Be a Morning? (1983). After directing American Playwrights Theater: The One-Acts (1989), he took an eight-year break before his final directorial work, The Member of the Wedding (1997).
Fielder Cook passed away on June 20, 2003, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
