John Sturges (1910-1992) was born in Oak Park, Illinois, and began in the RKO editing room before making training and documentary films for the US Army Air Forces in the Second World War. He became one of Hollywood's most dependable makers of tough, clean action films: Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), a small thriller about a one-armed stranger in a hostile desert town, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape (1963), the last two built around large ensemble casts in which every actor gets a distinct moment.
Filmography
- The Walking Hills (1949)
- Mystery Street (1950)
- Kind Lady (1951)
- The People Against O'Hara (1951)
- Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)
- Jeopardy (1953)
- Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
- Underwater! (1955)
- Backlash (1956)
- Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
- The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
- Saddle the Wind (1958)
- The Law and Jake Wade (1958)
- Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)
- Never So Few (1959)
- The Magnificent Seven (1960)
- Sergeants 3 (1962)
- The Great Escape (1963)
- The Hallelujah Trail (1965)
- The Satan Bug (1965)
- Hour of the Gun (1967)
- Ice Station Zebra (1968)
- Marooned (1969)
- Le Mans (1971)
- Joe Kidd (1972)
- Chino (1973)
- McQ (1974)
- The Eagle Has Landed (1976)