Joseph Sargent (born Giuseppe Danielle Sorgente; July 22, 1925 – December 22, 2014) was an American film director. Though he directed many television movies, his best known feature-length works were arguably the action movie White Lightning starring Burt Reynolds, the biopic MacArthur starring Gregory Peck, and the horror anthology Nightmares. His most popular feature film was the subway thriller The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. Sargent won four Emmy Awards over his career.
Sargent was born Giuseppe Danielle Sorgente in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Italians Maria (née Noviello) and Domenico Sorgente.[1][2] Sargent served in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge.[3][4][5][6] Sargent began his career as an actor, appearing in numerous films and television programs.
He appeared in the Western series Gunsmoke, once in 1957 as a man, turned drunk, who lost his drive to live, in the episode “Skid Row” (S2E22); then again as a drunk cowboy who gets killed in The Longbranch Saloon in the 1959 episode “”There Never Was A Horse” (S4 E35).
In 1969, he directed his first feature, the science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project. In 1971, he was hired to direct Buck and the Preacher but, after a few days of shooting, was replaced by Sidney Poitier, who cited creative differences.[7] The next year, however, he directed The Man, starring James Earl Jones, which was begun as a television movie.
Sargent was nominated for several Emmy awards. He won four. Early in his career, he won a Directors Guild of America award for the Kojak pilot. Sargent was nominated for eight DGA awards for television movies, more than any other director in this category.
