Paul Wendkos was a leading film and television director who helmed 1971 film adaptation of Fred Mustard Stewart’s supernatural novel The Mephisto Waltz. Alan Alda and Jacqueline Bissett starred in the tale of satanic bargains and soul transference.
Wendkos was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 20, 1922. He began directing films in the late 1950s, and was best known for helming the surf film Gidget in 1959.
He was also a prolific television director from the late 1950, helming episodes of such series as Five Fingers, Kraft Suspense Theatre, Honey West, The Wild Wild West, I Spy, and The Invaders. He also directed numerous tele-films including Fear No Evil (1969), The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970), The Delphi Bureau (1972), Haunts of the Very Rich (1972), The Legend of Legend Borden (1975), Good Against Evil (1977), the 1985 remake of the psychological thriller The Bad Seed, and From the Dead of Night (1989).
Wendkos died of complications from a stroke at his home in Malibu, California, on November 12, 2009, at the age of 87.
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