Marvin J. Chomsky, a four-time Emmy-winning director whose credit embody the seminal 1977 miniseries Roots, Holocaust and dozens of TV sequence together with the unique Star Trek and Hawaii 5-O, died Monday. He was 92.
His son, producer Peter Chomsky, instructed Deadline that his father died in his sleep however gave no different particulars.
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The elder Chomsky already was a veteran TV director when he scored an Emmy nomination for helming two episodes of the groundbreaking slavery saga Roots. He went on to win Emmys for steering the harrowing 1978 miniseries Holocaust, telefilms Attica (1980) and Contained in the Third Reich (1982) and the Maximilian Schell-led miniseries Peter the Nice (1986). He earned nominations for helming Evita Peron (1981), Anastasia: The Thriller of Anna (1986) and Billionaire Boys Membership (1987), additionally scoring an Excellent Miniseries nom because the latter’s supervising producer.
When he accepted his Emmy for Contained in the Third Reich, Chomsky famous that he had gained awards for steering tasks about occasions that “by no means ought to have occurred.”
Born on Could 23, 1929, in New York Metropolis, Chomsky started his profession as an artwork director and set decorator earlier than directing some episodes of medical drama The Nurses (aka The Medical doctors and the Nurses). He went on to helm a number of episodes of Maya and The Wild Wild West earlier than directing three episodes of the unique Star Trek: “And the Kids Shall Lead,” “Days of the Dove” and “All Our Yesterdays.”
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Chomsky continued to direct TV dramas into the Nineteen Seventies, together with episodes of Gunsmoke, Hawaii 5-O, Mannix, Police Story, Mission: Unimaginable! and The Title of the Recreation, together with a number of telefilms. However his profile was heightened when he helmed a number of episodes of Roots, the formidable and daring ABC miniseries starring LeVar Burton, John Amos, Louis Gossett Jr. and others. Based mostly on Alex Haley’s stirring greatest vendor, it was a phenomenon — shattering scores data and changing into the most-watched TV drama in historical past. Almost half of the U.S. inhabitants tuned in, kicking off TV’s Age of the Miniseries.
Chomsky adopted that up by directing all 4 episodes of NBC’s Holocaust, which adopted a fictional German Jewish household and a rising member of the SS amid the onset of Nazism and because the planet careened into World Conflict II. It starred, amongst others, Michael Moriarty, Fritz Weaver, James Woods and a younger Meryl Streep in her breakout function.
From there, Chomsky directed a sequence of TV films together with Attica, Evita Peron, Contained in the Third Reich, I Was a Mail Order Bride, Tank and My Physique, My Baby, earlier than pivoting again to miniseries similar to Peter the Nice, The Deliberate Stranger, Anastasia, Billionaire Boys Membership, Brotherhood of the Rose and Strauss Dynasty — all of which he additionally produced. His last directing credit score was for the 1995 TV film Catherine the Nice, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Together with Peter Chomsky — whose producing credit embody Fargo, Mozart within the Jungle and Lifeless to Me — he’s survived by sons David and Eric, daughter-in-law Genelle and granddaughter Liliana.