Michael Gordon on AllMovie

Educated at Johns Hopkins and Yale, Michael Gordon spent five years (1935 to 1940) as a director of the Group Theatre. Gordon was brought to Hollywood in 1940 as dialog director for Columbia Pictures. His earliest directorial credits include several of Columbia's "Boston Blackie" entries. Moving to Universal, he was elevated to "A" productions like Another Part of the Forest (1949). His crowning achievement during the first phase of his Hollywood career was the 1950 cinemadaption of Cyrano de Bergerac. Within a year of this triumph, Gordon couldn't get work; because he refused to name names before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, he was blacklisted in Tinseltown. In his eight years away from films, Gordon helmed one film in Australia, 1953's Wherever She Goes, then directed such Broadway productions as The Tender Trap. He was reinstated in Hollywood by Universal producer Ross Hunter, who engaged Gordon as director of the frothy Doris Day-Rock Hudson hit Pillow Talk (1959). After completing his final film, How Do I Love Thee?, Michael Gordon joined the faculty of the UCLA Theatre Arts Department.