Michael Gordon (September 6, 1909 — April 29, 1993) was an American stage actor and stage and film director. A member of the Group Theatre (1935 — 1940), he was blacklisted as a Communist in the days of McCarthyism. September 6 is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years). ... 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... April 29 is the 119th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (120th in leap years). ... 1993 (MCMXCIII in Roman) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... The Group Theatre was a left-wing theater collective, formed in New York in 1931 by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... A blacklist is a list or register of entities who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, or mobility. ... Communism refers to a conjectured future classless, stateless social organization based upon common ownership of the means of production, and can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement. ... McCarthyism took place during a period of intense suspicion in the United States primarily from 1950 to 1954, when the U.S. government was actively countering American Communist Party subversion, its leadership, and others suspected of being Communists or Communist sympathizers. ...

Due to this, Gordon's Hollywood career neatly falls into two phases. In 1940, he started as a dialogue director and went on to direct B-movies. In the late 1940s, he distinguished himself by directing not just some action movies but also melodramas and films noir. After a hiatus of nine years or so, he was called back to Hollywood at the end of the 1950s by producer Ross Hunter, who wanted him to direct Pillow Talk, a vehicle for Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Subsequently, Gordon's second creative phase was concerned with light-hearted comedy films. 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The term B-movie originally referred to a film designed to be distributed as the lower half of a double feature, often a genre film featuring cowboys, gangsters or vampires. ... // Events and trends World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ... Poster for The Perils of Pauline (1914). ... This still from The Big Combo (1955) demonstrates the visual style of film noir at its most extreme. ... // Events and trends This map shows two essential global spheres during the Cold War in 1959. ... Ross Hunter, born Martin Fuss (May 6, 1920 - March 10, 1996), was a noted Hollywood film producer. ... Doris Day and Rock Hudson Pillow Talk is a 1959 romantic comedy film which tells the story of a man and woman who share a telephone line and grow to hate each other, and then, of course, to love each other. ... Doris Day Doris Day (born April 3, 1924) is an American singer, actress, and animal welfare advocate. ... Rock Hudson (November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor, famous for his rugged good looks. ... Airplane! is considered by some critics to be one of the funniest movies of all time. ...

He later joined the faculty of the UCLA Theatre Arts Department. The University of California, Los Angeles, popularly known as UCLA, is a public, coeducational university situated in the neighborhood of Westwood within the city of Los Angeles. ...

Select filmography as director

• The Web (1947)
• Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
• The Secret of Convict Lake (1951)
• Pillow Talk (1959)
• Boys' Night Out (1962)
• Move Over, Darling (1963)