Jeannot Szwarc

Biography: French-born Jeannot Szwarc is one of the more competent action film directors to emerge in the '70s. Beginning with the William Castle-produced Bug (1975), Szwarc has shown a good commercial edge, which was only enhanced by regular work as a director on the television series Kojak during the mid '70s, where the director's style was finely honed. Jaws 2 (1978), although nowhere in league with Steven Spielberg's original, was the most respectable and appreciated of the many sequels to that original, and Somewhere in Time (1980) was one of the most thoughtful science-fiction/fantasy films of the period, and has developed a considerable cult following. Supergirl (1984) was a step backward, but Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) was reasonably successful.