Ralph Nelson

Biography: A stage actor, writer, and director by the late '30s, Nelson began acting, producing, and directing in television in the late '40s. He debuted as a film director in 1962 with Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight, which Nelson had originally directed on television. He scored again with his next films, the comedy/dramas Lilies of the Field with Sidney Poitier and Soldier in the Rain with Steve McQueen. An ecelectic director, Nelson also helmed such notable films as Charly with Cliff Robertson, which he also produced and acted in; the gory revisionist western Soldier Blue; the political drama The Wilby Conspiracy, which he also starred Poitier; and the Alice Childress adaptation A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich.