Background
Gries was born in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Ruth, later remarried to jazz player Muggsy Spanier.
(A HARD-TO-FIND WESTERN PAPERBACK! THIS STORY WAS MADE INT...)
A HARD-TO-FIND WESTERN PAPERBACK! THIS STORY WAS MADE INTO A GREAT WESTERN MOVIE WITH CHARLTON HESTON IN THE TITLE ROLE! THIS BOOK'S COVER HAS A CLOSE-UP OF CHARLTON HESTON AS WILL PENNY, COWBOY. APRIL 1968 FIRST PRINTING BALLANTINE BOOKS PAPERBACK #U5134 (60 CENTS ORIGINAL PRICE!). 192 PAGES. PRINTED IN USA.
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Gries was born in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Ruth, later remarried to jazz player Muggsy Spanier.
Educated at the Loyola Academy and Georgetown University, Gries began working in television in the 1950s as a writer and director, on such programs as Bronco, The Rat Patrol, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Westerner, The Rifleman, East Side/West Side, Mission: Impossible, Route 66, Batman and I Spy. In the cinema, Gries directed some low-budget movies in the 1950s before concentrating his efforts more on television In the late 1960s, he wrote and directed what is generally acknowledged to be his greatest work in either medium, the western Will Penny, which starred Charlton Heston and was released in 1968. lieutenant was based on an episode of the television series The Westerner that Gries wrote and directed in 1960, entitled "Lincolnshire Camp." Gries subsequently made two other films with Heston, the less successful Number One and The Hawaiians, and directed several other films with other high-profile actors such as Burt Reynolds and Charles Bronson into the 1970s, though they failed to reach the critical approval that Will Penny received.
The most successful of his later works was Helter Skelter, made in 1976, which was a television film based on the notorious Charles Manson Family.
During post-production on his final film,, a biography of boxer Muhammad Ali (in which Ali also played himself), Tom Gries collapsed and died of a heart attack while playing tennis. He was 54 years old. He is the father of actor and director Jon Gries (who appeared under the name Jon Francis in the film Will Penny as a child actor).
(A HARD-TO-FIND WESTERN PAPERBACK! THIS STORY WAS MADE INT...)