Film Writer, Producer & Director
(1941)
Julius D. Feigelson, known to all as J.D., was born in Beaumont, Texas to Julius and Marian Feigelson. He was raised in Beaumont and attended school there, graduating from Beaumont High School in 1959. While still in high school, J.D. worked as a production assistant on the Shock Theater series, a local TV Saturday night horror show on Channel 4 in nearby Port Arthur, Texas. He attended Lamar Tech, graduating in 1963 with a B.S. in Speech. During his college years, Feigelson also worked at the CBS affiliate Channel 6 in Beaumont. During the summers of 1962 and 1963 he worked for David L. Wolper Productions in Los Angeles, and afterwards spent a short time in Houston doing medical films and documentry films for NASA. He returned to Beaumont, and in late 1964 began producing commercials as an independent. In 1969, Feigelson relocated to nearby Houston to continue his commercial production in the larger market. Here he formed the film studio of Feigelson, Giertz & Hall absorbing several other studios. FGH, as it was known, produced commercial and corporate films for companies including Texaco, Penzoil, Exxon and the governor of Texas re-election campaign. Their facilities were also used by several hollywood production companies when filming in Houston. During this time, Feigelson produced a Civil War drama entitled One of the Missing. A mutual friend had introduced Feigelson to author Ray Bradbury who saw the film. He was impressed by the work and offered to mentor Feigelson in screen writing. The relationship exists to this day. Bradbury later hosted the premiere of One of the Missing when it appeared on PBS. The success of this film lead Feigelson to Los Angles in 1981 and the production of Dark Night of the Scarecrow, his first commercial television network movie. It has since become a cult classic appearing annually at Halloween. Feigelson continues this work in Los Angeles and is a member of the Directors' Guild of America, the Writers'Guild of America, the Hollywood Radio and Television Society, and is a past member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. His motion picture and television credits include The Lake NBC movie, 1998 (writer/executive producer); Nightmare on the 13th Floor USA cable movie, 1990 (writer); Houston: The Legend of Texas aka Gone to Texas CBS special three hour movie, 1986 (executive producer); Chiller CBS movie 1985 (writer/producer); "The Twilight Zone" CBS series, 1985 (director/writer of two episodes); The Covenant NBC movie/pilot, 1985 (writer/supervising producer); Cry for the Strangers CBS movies, 1982 (adaption writer); Dark Night of the Scarecrow CBS movie, 1981 (writer). One of the Missing PBS special, 1979 (writer/producer/director); The Windsplitter independent feature, 1971 (writer/director); Red Water TBS movie, 2002; and One of the Missing re-release for PBS, 2003 (writer/producer/director).
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