Robert Mulligan, the director who earned Academy Award recognition more than four decades ago, passed away Saturday of heart disease at his Connecticut home. He was 83.

 

Robert Mulligan dies early Saturday morning at his home in Lyme, Connecticut. He had suffered from heart disease.

Born on August 23, 1925, in the Bronx, New York City, NY, Mulligan began working in television in New York in the early 1950s. Critical praise came soon to him, as he won an Emmy Award for the television movie “The Moon and Sixpence” in 1960.

 

He directed nearly two dozen films, including 1957’s “Fear Strikes Out,” starring Anthony Perkins, “Summer of ‘42,” “The Other” and “Same Time, Next Year.” His final film was 1991’s “Man in the Moon” and it featured actress Reese Witherspoon’s movie debut.

 

The greatest achievement of his career remains perhaps the 1962 drama “To Kill a Mockingbird,” based on the novel of the same name by Harper Lee. Gregory Peck received an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Atticus Finch and the film garnered another seven nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture.

 

Mulligan’s name was associated with the Academy Awards on various other occasions, as actors he directed received nominations: Natalie Wood in “Love with the Proper Stranger,” Ruth Gordon in “Inside Daisy Clover” and Ellen Burstyn in “Same Time, Next Year.”

 

He collaborated over a number of years and on numerous projects with producer Alan J. Pakula; between 1957 and 1969, they made seven films, including “Fear Strikes Out” and “The Stalking Moon.”

 

His younger brother was the late actor Richard Mulligan. Mulligan is survived by his wife of 37 years, Sandy; three children from a previous marriage, Kevin, Beth and Christopher; two grandchildren; and a brother, James.