Edward Woodward: When We Crossed Paths…

When someone dies, with whom you have crossed paths, you can’t help but remember how they touched and helped to shape your life.

I was blessed to have worked with very talented Edward Woodward on “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” early in my career… a time when I had much less individual responsibility on the crew than I did later in my career, and so I was gifted to learn a lot by observation.

We worked overtime for every episode of the series, save the one that he was in. You see, starring in nearly every scene of the script, he had the authority to set the maximum number of hours he would work on a shoot day. In so doing, he saved the entire cast and crew from working overtime – for one episode, anyway. Oddly enough, we still got our days and the scenes we needed to cut together a really great episode. It just took more planning to do so. And so early in my career I learned a very valuable lesson about the importance of preproduction. Thank you, Mr. Woodward.

We rarely find out how we touch the lives of others, which is kind of strange since this industry is all about communication of ideas and stories! So, let’s just live well & kind, and trust that we have a positive effect.

In thoughtful memory,
Deb