---
name: "Gary Nelson"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/gary-nelson"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "6 October 1934"
died: "25 May 2022"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-16T21:21:01.019739+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Gary Nelson

Director. Born 6 October 1934 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Died 25 May 2022.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 6 October 1934, Los Angeles, California, USA
- **Died:** 25 May 2022
- **Elsewhere:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3098592, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0625379/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/47893

## Streaming the US now

- **The Roku Channel:** [*Kojak*](https://film.one/tv/kojak.md) (80)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

Gary Nelson (6 October 1934 – 25 May 2022) was an American television and film director. Born in Los Angeles, he began his career as an assistant director on films including *Rebel Without a Cause* and *The Searchers* before moving into directing in the early 1960s.

He directed episodes of numerous television series, including *Get Smart*, *Gunsmoke*, *Gilligan's Island*, *The Andy Griffith Show*, *Kojak* (1973) and *Police Story*. His feature films include *Freaky Friday* (1976), *The Black Hole* (1979) and *Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold* (1986). Nelson was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the 1977 miniseries *Washington: Behind Closed Doors*.

He was married to actress Judi Meredith from 1962 until her death in 2014; they had two sons. His father, Sam Nelson, was an assistant director and co-founder of what became the Directors Guild of America.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, hollywoodreporter.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Kojak* (1973), Fi1m 80, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/kojak.md)

## Also known for

- *The Black Hole* (1979), Director
- *Get Smart* (1965), Director
- *Gunfight at the O.K. Corral* (1957), Second Assistant Director
- *Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold* (1986), Director
- *Freaky Friday* (1976), Director
- *Gilligan's Island* (1964), Director
- *The Andy Griffith Show* (1960), Director
- *Early Edition* (1996), Director

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/gary-nelson