Howard W. 'Hawk' Koch Jr. on AllMovie

An assistant director and second-unit director by the early '50s, Howard Koch helmed his first film in 1954, the bad-cop drama Shield for Murder, co-directed by its star Edmond O'Brien. A series of genre films followed, most notably the campy women's-prison film Untamed Youth; the Wages of Fear remake Violent Road; the horror tale Frankenstein 1970, with Boris Karloff; and two films starring Mickey Rooney, Andy Hardy Comes Home (the final installment of MGM's durable series) and the death-row drama The Last Mile. Koch began producing in the '50s, making such films as the World War Two drama Beachhead and the chiller The Black Sleep. As executive producer for Frank Sinatra Enterprises in the early '60s, Koch made several Sinatra films, most notably The Manchurian Candidate. His other major efforts as producer include Theodore J. Flicker's The President's Analyst, Vincente Minnelli's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, the popular haunted romance Ghost, and the Neil Simon adaptations The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, and Last of the Red Hot Lovers.