Television producer David Gerber died of heart failure on 2 January 2010. Born 25 July 1923 in Brooklyn, New York, he won an Emmy in 1976 for Police Story, and was nominated for six other Emmys. He also won a Peabody Award for his 1984 mini-series George Washington, which starred Barry Bostwick. The American Film Institute named Gerber the TV Producer of the Year in 1998, and in 1996, the Casting Society of America gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Serving in the US Army Air Force during World War II, he was shot down over Germany and became a prisoner of war. After the war, he earned a bachelor’s degree from what is now the University of the Pacific. Then he went to work in advertising and talent agencies, and then moved into television. His first executive producer work was on 24 episodes of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1969-70), and then 54 episodes of Nanny and the Professor (1970-71).
He later moved on to handle television production at Columbia Pictures and MGM, as well as at his own production company.
Gerber’s other genre work includes: The Sky’s on Fire (1998), The Adventures of Sinbad (1996), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1987), three episodes of Quark (1977-78), and The Magnificent Magical Magnet of Santa Mesa (1977).
He is survived by his wife of 39 years, actress Laraine Stephens.