Year Born: 1929
Year Died: 2006
Year of Induction: 2000
Pioneer – Member of CAB Hall of Fame
Duke, Daryl (1929-2006)
Film director Daryl Duke’s Emmy Award career spanned a wide range of accomplishments – in feature films, documentary, television drama and TV specials. On many productions, he served as producer and as executive producer. H worked for both the CBC and CTV Canadian networks, for all three of the principal U.S. networks, and for most of the major studios in Hollywood. His film and television assignments took him to South America, China, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, Yugoslavia, Europe and England.
A native of Canada and a graduate of the University of British Columbia, Daryl began his career as a film editor, writer and director for the National Film Board of Canada, internationally recognized for its excellence in film.
For the CBC, he originated the first television programs for CBUT-TV Vancouver when the station went on the air in December of 1953, followed by producing and directing variety programs, classical music series, dramas and public affairs documentaries for West Coast audiences and the CBC national network. In Toronto, Daryl went on to become both producer and director of some of the CBC’s most memorable television programs.
In 1976, Daryl, with Norman Klenman, founded and launched Vancouver’s second privately-owned television station, CKVU-TV, and served as president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board until 1988 when he sold his ownership in order to devote his full time to his international film and television career.
Daryl Duke’s list of writing, directing and/or production credits included:
(for the CBC) Close Up, Explorations, Quest, Sunday, Wojek, Quentin Jurgens, M.P., Corwin, The Manipulators, This Hour Has Seven Days; (for U.S. TV networks) Fatal Memories, The Eileen Franklin Story, Columbo Cried Wolf, When We were Young, I Heard the Owl Call My Name, God Bless the Children; The President’s Plane is Missing, They Only Come Out At Night, Griffin Loves Phoenix; (series) The Bold Ones, The Senator, Banacek, Harry O; (variety) Steve Allen Show and Les Crane Show.
For his direction of the 10-hour 1983 mini series of the book The Thorn Birds, Daryl received a Directors Guild of America nomination. He also received a National Society of Film Critics Special Award for his feature film Payday, and Canadian Film Awards (since dubbed “The Genies”) for Best Picture for the film The Silent Partner. Daryl was also the winner of an Emmy Award for his direction of the episode “The Day the Lion Died” in the NBC series “The Senator”.
Daryl served for a several years as a member of the Steering Committee of The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and as a member of the Board of Directors of B.C. Film, the agency set up to fund the support of Canadian film activity on the West Coast.
In 2000, Daryl Duke was inducted into the CAB Broadcast Hall of Fame.
Daryl Duke died in Vancouver on October 21st 2006 at the age of 77, after a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis.
In 2007, British Columbia Film and the B.C. Chapter of the Directors’ Guild of Canada announced the establishment of the Lieutenant-Governor’s Daryl Duke Award for Screenwriting, “….to acknowledge the achievements of established film and television screenwriters living in British Columbia.”