Harold Hankins Hopper (July 29, 1907 – December 17, 1988), known professionally as Jerry Hopper, was an American film and television director, active from the mid-1940s through the early 1970s.

Early life

Jerry Hopper was born in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Career

He was an editor at Paramount Pictures before moving to the directors' chair for several installments of their Musical Parade series (1946–48). Hopper went on to direct feature films, such as, The Atomic City (1952), Pony Express (1953), Secret of the Incas (1954), and The Private War of Major Benson (1955), the latter three with actor Charlton Heston. In 1958 he directed Brandon deWilde and Lee Marvin in The Missouri Traveler. He then moved primarily into episodic television, having appeared in Colt .45, Bachelor Father, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, The Addams Family, Burke's Law, Perry Mason, The Fugitive, Gilligan's Island, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, among many others.

Personal life

Hopper married actress Marsha Hunt on November 23, 1938. They divorced in 1943. He married Winifred Joyce Robinson in 1949. He later was married to actress Dorothy Ellis. Hopper had four sons and two daughters. He died of heart disease on December 17, 1988, in San Clemente, California, at age 81.

Filmography