William Asher
Born	August 8, 1921 (1921-08-08) (age 88) New York City, New York
Occupation	director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1948–1990
Spouse(s)	Dani Sue Nolan (1951–1961) Elizabeth Montgomery (1963–1973) Joyce Bulifant (1976–1993) Meredith (1998–present)

William Asher (born August 8, 1921) is an American television and film producer, film director, and screenwriter.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life and career 1.2 Personal life 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

Born in New York City, his mother was actress Lillian Bonner and his father was Jewish American producer E.M. Asher (who produced films for Mack Sennett).

His most famous works include directing episodes of The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950), I Love Lucy (1951), Our Miss Brooks (1952), General Electric Theater (1953), Make Room for Daddy (1953), December Bride (1954), The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1956), Sally (1957), The Twilight Zone (1959), The Patty Duke Show (1963), Bewitched (1964), Gidget (1965), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), Private Benjamin (1981) and Alice (1976-85).

Asher directed 110 out of the 179 episodes of I Love Lucy (1951 - 1957), and produced and directed all 218 episodes of Bewitched, which ran for eight seasons (1964 to 1972). Both series still run in syndication in dozens of languages today. He was married to the star of Bewitched, Elizabeth Montgomery from 1963 until 1973. They had three children.

He directed several movies, and wrote and directed the popular beach movies starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon - Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), and Beach Blanket Bingo (1965).

Asher received a star in Palm Springs' Walk of Stars - located at 100 North Palm Canyon Drive, and dedicated in November 2003.

[edit] Personal life

Asher resides in Indian Wells, California, with his fourth wife, Meredith.^[1]

His family continues on in show business. Asher's daughter (with Montgomery) Rebecca Asher is a script supervisor.

His adopted son (from his marriage to actress Joyce Bulifant), John Mallory Asher starred in the TV series Weird Science (as Gary) and then directed Hilary Swank in Kounterfeit. He continued his directorial endeavors with Diamonds, starring Kirk Douglas, Dan Aykroyd, Lauren Bacall and Jenny McCarthy (John's former wife).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• William Asher at the Internet Movie Database
• William Asher at TV.com

v • d • e Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series Peter Tewksbury (1959) · Ralph Levy / Bud Yorkin (1960) · Sheldon Leonard (1961) · Nat Hiken (1962) · John Rich (1963) · Jerry Paris (1964) · William Asher (1966) · James Frawley (1967) · Bruce Bilson (1968) · Jay Sandrich (1971) · John Rich (1972) · Jay Sandrich (1973) · Jackie Cooper (1974) · Gene Reynolds / David P. Powers (1975) Complete list: (1959–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–present)

Persondata
NAME	Asher, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Asher, Bill
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Director, producer, screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH	August 8, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH	New York City, New York
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH