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Arthur Allan Seidelman is an award-winning American television, film, and theatre director and an occasional writer, producer, and actor.
Born in New York City, he received his B.A. from Whittier College and an M.A. in Theatre from UCLA. He subsequently studied with Sanford Meisner, who became a lifelong friend and mentor. Seidelman made his screen directorial debut with Hercules in New York, a 1970 comedy-action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Additional credits include The Caller, Walking Across Egypt, Puerto Vallarta Squeeze, The Sisters, The Awakening of Spring and Children of Rage. While researching that film, he lived extensively in the Middle East, including in refugee camps in Lebanon, where at one point, he was taken hostage by extremists. The film went on to be screened for major international bodies around the world, including the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the United Nations. He has directed over fifty motion pictures and one hundred stage productions.
Most of Seidelman's career has been spent in television directing movies such as Macbeth, Like Mother Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes, Poker Alice with Elizabeth Taylor, A Friendship in Vienna, Grace and Glorie, Harvest of Fire, Kate's Secret, The Runaway, and A Christmas Carol-The Musical; episodes of series such as Fame, The Paper Chase, Knots Landing, Hill Street Blues, Magnum, P.I., Murder, She Wrote, Trapper John, M.D., L.A. Law, and A Year in the Life, among others; and several episodes of the ABC Afterschool Special series. The latter won him two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Direction in 1979 and 1981. He received additional Emmy Award nominations for an episode of Hill Street Blues, the 1982 all-star variety special I Love Liberty, and as host of the PBS series Actors on Acting. He also has won the Writers Guild of America Award for his contribution to I Love Liberty, featuring Barbra Streisand, Shirley MacLaine, Jane Fonda, Burt Lancaster, Martin Sheen, and Dionne Warwick, as well as two Christopher Awards. He has also won The Peabody Award, the Humanitas Prize, The Western Heritage Award, and numerous other awards from international film festivals, including the Milagro Award for the Best American Independent Film for The Sisters. Seidelman most recently guest starred in the final episode of ER.
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