Robert Mulligan, the talented director who was nominated for an Oscar® for the critically lauded racial drama To Kill a Mockingbird, and directed such varied genre films as the nostalgic romance Summer of '42 and the supernatural thriller The Other, died on December 20 at his home in Old Lyme, Connecticut of natural causes. He was 83.

He was born on August 23, 1925 in the Bronx, New York City. After attending Fordham University with an emphasis on radio communications, he developed skills in radio production in the Marine Corp. during World War II and eventually joined the fledging CBS television as a messenger boy. He eventually began to direct some live anthology shows such as The Philco Television Playhouse, Goodyear Television Playhouse, Playhouse 90 and Studio One.

His move into movies came when he struck a partnership with producer/director Alan J. Pakula. Their first collaboration, Fear Strikes Out (1957) about the mentally ill baseball player Jimmy Piersall, received good critical notices, especially for the performance of Anthony Perkins in the lead. It was a promising start and eventually Mulligan would see his career blossom in the '60s: the impactful, terse legal drama To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) that earned him an Oscar® nod and a deserved win for Gregory Peck; Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen in a sensitive drama about an unwanted pregnancy, Love with the Proper Stranger (1963); and the tough youth story of a struggling teacher (Sandy Dennis) in an inner city school for Up the Down Staircase (1967). His career slowed in the '70s, but he made three of his strongest films in the decade - the warm love story of an older woman (Jennifer O'Neill) and younger man (Gary Grimes) during the war in Summer of '42 (1971); his sharp, supernatural study of twins who may or may not be responsible for questionable deaths of various family members in the vastly underrated The Other (1972); and the popular film adaptation of the Broadway hit Same Time, Next Year (1978), regarding two plutonic friends whose friendship only deepens when they relate their personal tragedies.

His last film was notable in that it was the film debut of a young, 14-year old Reese Witherspoon, playing a young girl who experiences heartbreak and growing pains in the simple but beguiling coming of age tale, The Man in the Moon (1991). Throughout his career, Mulligan's body of work was often overlooked by many critics feeling he lacked a personal style or auterist perspective, but any reasonable examinations of the films listed here can view a director with a gift for supple, vivid characterizations who always managed to extract the most sensitive performances from his cast. Mulligan is survived by his wife of 37 years, Sandy; two sons, Kevin, and Christopher; a daughter, Beth; and two grandchildren.

by Michael T. Toole