Mann, Delbert (b. 1920)Catherine L. PrestonDavid J. WishartProject TeamKatherine WalterLaura WeaklyNicholas Swiercek2011egp.fil.043Encyclopedia of the Great PlainsUniversity of Nebraska–LincolnCenter for Digital Research in the Humanities319 Love LibraryUniversity of Nebraska–LincolnLincoln, NE 68588-4100cdrh@unlnotes.unl.edu2011
Catherine L. Preston. "Mann, Delbert (b. 1920)." In David J. Wishart, ed. Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. 272-273.2008-02-12Nicholas SwiercekModel Encoding
MANN, DELBERT (b. 1920)
Delbert Mann, Oscar-winning motion picture
and television director, was born in Lawrence,
Kansas, on January 30, 1920. He moved to
Nashville, Tennessee, as a young boy and graduated
from Vanderbilt University in 1941. After
serving as a bomber pilot during World
War II he earned a master of fine arts degree
from Yale's Department of Drama. In 1949 he
was invited by Fred Coe, a producer at NBC
Television and an old friend, to go to New
York and direct live television drama. Among
the many productions he directed were
The Petrified Forest (1955), with Humphrey Bogart
and Lauren Bacall, and Marty (1953), with Rod
Steiger and Nancy Marchand. Marty was so
successful as a television drama that Mann
was invited to Hollywood to direct the feature
film with Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair. The
film won Academy Awards in 1955 for best
picture, best director, and best actor (for
Borgnine). Mann directed many other Hollywood
films, including The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960), The Outsider (1961), and
That Touch of Mink (1962).
From the late 1960s through 1994 he directed
several television films, including
David Copperfield, Jane Eyre, The Man without a Country, All Quiet on the Western Front, All the Way Home, and, in 1994 at the age of seventy-four, Lily in Winter. Typical of the art that was live
television drama, the hallmarks of Mann's style
lie in character development and realistic
drama with an interest in rendering the lives of
normal everyday people. The papers of Delbert
Mann, from 1947 to 1994, are preserved in
the Special Collections Library of Vanderbilt
University, Nashville, Tennessee. They consist
primarily of the materials generated by Mann's
television and motion picture productions, including
production papers, scripts and script
reports, photographs, videotapes, and scrapbooks.
Catherine L. Preston
University of KansasHarwell, Sarah, ed. The Papers of Delbert Mann: A Manuscripts Catalog. Nashville: Vanderbilt University, Jean and
Alexander Heard Library, 1993.Mann, Delbert. Looking Back . . . at Live Television and Other Matters. Los Angeles:
Directors Guild of America, 1998.