Mickey Moore (born Dennis Michael Sheffield, October 14, 1914 – March 4, 2013) was a Canadian-born American film director, second unit director, and child actor. He was credited as Michael Moore on all the films and television projects that he directed, and on most of the films on which he was second unit director.
Life and career
Dennis Michael Sheffield was born in Vancouver, British Columbia,Moore's obituary in the L.A. Times the son of Thomas William Sheffield, a British marine engineer, and his wife, Norah Moore Sheffield, an actress from Dublin. He and his brother Patrick were Hollywood silent film child actors. At the age of five he appeared in his first film under the stage name "Mickey Moore", chosen because their mother "decided that the boys should work under her maiden name of Moore." He appeared in two dozen films, including The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln (1924) and The King of Kings (1927), until 1927 when he was 13.
In the early 1950s, Moore began working as an assistant director. He was first A.D. on dozens of major motion pictures including The Ten Commandments (1956), and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). He was an assistant director on several Elvis Presley musical films and directed Presley in the film Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966) for Paramount Pictures. Because of that, plus his experience directing a western film, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer hired him to direct rock and roll singer Roy Orbison in The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967). He worked exclusively as a director in film and television from 1965 to 1969.
He then became a second unit director, working on numerous major films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Patton (1970), and The Man Who Would Be King (1975). He was credited as associate producer in charge of action and animal scenes for Quest for Fire (1981). In the 1980s, Steven Spielberg hired Moore as second unit director on Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. His association with Spielberg led him to direct the "Alamo Jobe" episode of the Amazing Stories television series. Moore was still active as a second unit director into his eighties. His last work was for Disney's 2000 film, 102 Dalmatians.
Moore attended Venice High School in the 1930s where he played football. He married high school sweetheart Esther McNeil in 1933 and had two daughters, Sandra Kastendiek-Drake (born 1936) and Patricia Newman (born 1937). McNeil died in 1992 and Moore married Laurie Abdo, formerly a personal assistant of Paramount producer Howard W. Koch, five years later; Abdo died in 2011.
Death Moore died of congestive heart failure at the age of 98 in Malibu, California on March 4, 2013.
Filmography As director
Bonanza (1959, TV, 1 episode) Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966) An Eye for an Eye (1966) Fastest Guitar Alive (1967) Kill a Dragon (1967) Hondo (1967, TV, 4 episodes) Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1967, TV, 1 episode) Buckskin (1968) Mister Deathman (1983) Amazing Stories (1985, TV, 1 episode)
As second unit director Year Title Director 1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid George Roy Hill How to Commit Marriage Norman Panama 1970 Patton Franklin J. Schaffner 1971 Sometimes a Great Notion Paul Newman 1973 Emperor of the North Robert Aldrich Badge 373 Howard W. Koch 1974 Mame Gene Saks 1975 Rooster Cogburn Stuart Millar The Man Who Would Be King John Huston 1976 The Missouri Breaks Arthur Penn The Return of a Man Called Horse Irvin Kershner 1977 Airport '77 Jerry Jameson Damnation Alley Jack Smight 1980 Raise the Titanic Jerry Jameson 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark Steven Spielberg Zorro: The Gay Blade Peter Medak 1982 Six Pack Daniel Petrie 1983 Never Say Never Again Irvin Kershner 1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Steven Spielberg The Little Drummer Girl George Roy Hill 1985 Sylvester Tim Hunter National Lampoon's European Vacation Amy Heckerling 1987 Outrageous Fortune Arthur Hiller Ishtar Elaine May 1988 Willow Ron Howard Funny Farm George Roy Hill Le palanquin des larmes Jacques Dorfmann 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Steven Spielberg Ghostbusters II Ivan Reitman 1991 Toy Soldiers Daniel Petrie Jr. 1992 The Mighty Ducks Stephen Herek Chaplin Richard Attenborough 1993 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III Stuart Gillard Cool Runnings Jon Turteltaub The Three Musketeers Stephen Herek 1994 Little Giants Duwayne Dunham 1996 101 Dalmatians Stephen Herek 1997 Flubber Les Mayfield 1998 Wrongfully Accused Pat Proft 2000 102 Dalmatians Kevin Lima
References
Bibliography Holmstrom, John. The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995, Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, pp. 73–74.
External links
Mickey(aged 7) with Jack Holt and Mary Miles Minter in the film All Souls Eve 1921 (Univ. of Washington, Sayre collection)