Robert M. Young, the adventurous director who called the shots for Edward James Olmos in The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, Farrah Fawcett in Extremities and Tom Hulce and Ray Liotta in Dominick and Eugene, died Feb. 6, his son Andrew announced. He was 99.
After getting his start in educational and documentary films, Young also directed the 1969 Peabody-winning CBS telefilm J.T., written by Jane Wagner. Revolving around a Harlem youngster (Kevin Hooks) and an alley cat, it bowed on a Saturday afternoon and was repeated in primetime as the network preempted its most popular show, Gunsmoke.
Young also served as cinematographer, producer and co-writer with director Michael Roemer on the critically acclaimed drama Nothing But a Man (1964), featuring Ivan Dixon and jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln as a struggling young Black couple in Alabama.
Young made his feature directorial debut with Short Eyes (1977), which starred Bruce Davison, José Pérez and several real-life prisoners in a movie filmed in the Manhattan House of Detention for Men, also known as The Tombs. He came on board after the previous director quit when threatened with bodily harm.
Young and Olmos first collaborated on Alambrista! (1977), a drama about struggling Mexican immigrants in the U.S. that earned the director the Camera d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the best picture award from the San Sebastián International Film Festival.
The two then reteamed for The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982), the Tom Conti-starring Saving Grace (1986), Triumph of the Spirit (1989), Talent for the Game (1991), Roosters (1993), the 1995 telefilm Slave of Dreams and Caught (1996). He also produced Olmos’ directorial debut, American Me (1992).
Robert M. Young with Farrah Fawcett on the set of 1986’s Extremities
Everett
Robert Milton Young was born in the Bronx on Nov. 22, 1924, and raised on Long…
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