a person as he contemplates his crime, is convicted in court and then hanged. Coe achieved some admirable effects with the camera, drawing the viewer both into the killer's mind and into the action. Use of a spiral montage effect bridged the gap between scenes very well and the integration of film to point up the killer's dream of a cool, placid existence and to heighten the shock effect as the hangman ended his life was excellent. Technical director Bill States was on the beam with the controls in following Coe's direction. Coe became executive producer of Mr. Peepers in 1952 and kept that job until 1955. The program won a Peabody Award in 1953. He won an Emmy Award in 1954 as Best Producer of a Live Series for his work on Producer's Showcase. Writers Coe encouraged writers, including Paddy Chayefsky, Horton Foote, Tad Mosel, JP Miller, Summer Locke Elliott, Robert Alan Aurthur, and Gore Vidal. Numerous important actors appeared on Coe's shows, which were directed by, among others, Vincent Donohue, Delbert Mann and Arthur Penn. Broadway Coe also was a significant producer on Broadway. His plays include The Trip to Bountiful, The Miracle Worker, Two for the Seesaw, All the Way Home, A Thousand Clowns, and Wait Until Dark. He also produced the film versions of The Miracle Worker and A Thousand Clowns, the latter of which he directed. Personal life and death Coe was married to, and divorced from, Alice Griggs, and they had two children. At the time of his death he was legally separated from his second wife, Joyce Beeler, with who he had two children. He died of a heart attack on April 29, 1979, in Los Angeles, aged 64. He is buried in Green River Cemetery in Springs, New York. Legacy His biography, The Man in the Shadows: Fred Coe and the Golden Age of Television by Jon Krampner, was published by Rutgers University Press in 1997. The UCLA Film and Television Archive has kinescopes of many Coe productions and has made some digital transfers. The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research also has kinescopes. Filmography The Left Handed Gun (1958) (producer) The Miracle Worker (1962) (producer) A Thousand Clowns (1965) (director, producer) Me, Natalie (1969) (director) References External links Finding Aid for the Fred Coe Papers at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research Museum TV profile 1914 births 1979