Micky Moore

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Micky Moore, Acclaimed Second-Unit Director, Dies at 98

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Micky Moore as a child actor in "Exit the Vamp" (1921).

Long after a career as a child actor in the silents, the Cecil B. DeMille protege did the action scenes in the first three Indiana Jones movies and worked on scores of other films.


Micky Moore, a child actor who went on to become a disciple of Cecil B. DeMille and a top-notch second-unit director on such films as Patton, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the first three Indiana Jones movies, has died. He was 98.

Moore died March 4 of congestive heart failure at his home in Malibu, he family told the Los Angeles Times.

When producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg needed a second-unit director for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Moore was their first choice.

“Micky Moore was exceptional. … He was confident behind the camera and knew when to speak up to make things better,” Lucas wrote in a foreword to Moore’s 2009 book, My Magic Carpet Ride of Films.

Moore suggested that the truck-chase scene he would helm in Raiders could be improved by moving it from a desert to narrow tree-lined streets to give it context. The results, Lucas wrote of the now-iconic scene, “speak for themselves.”

Moore also worked as a second or assistant director on such films as The Paleface (1948), The Great Gatsby (1949), The War of the Worlds (1953), DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), King Creole (1958), Blue Hawaii (1961), The Carpetbaggers (1964), Rooster Cogburn (1975), The Electric Horseman (1979), Never Say Never Again (1983) and, his final credit, 102 Dalmatians (2000). Most of his work came on action scenes.

He was the lead director on Elvis Presley’s Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966), The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967) starring Roy Orbison and Kill a Dragon (1967) with Jack Palance, and he helmed episodes of such TV series as Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, Hondo, Bonanza and Spielberg’s Amazing Stories.

A native of Vancouver, Moore worked in silent films as a child with such stars as Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson -- one of his roles was as the 16th president's son Willie in The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln (1924) -- and with DeMille. When Moore's acting career faded, the famed director got him a job in the prop department at Paramount.

Moore’s brother Patrick, who died at age 91 in 2004, also appeared in dozens of silent pictures, including DeMille's 1923 version of The Ten Commandments, and he also worked at Paramount behind the scenes.

Moore’s wife, Laurice Lillian Abdo-Moore, was another Paramount employee; her stay at the studio spanned more than 50 years. Abdo-Moore, who served as a personal assistant to producer Howard W. Koch Sr. for three-plus decades, died at age 87 in 2011.


Some great Raiders pics

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Micky Moore, who contributed to movies like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and the first three "Indiana Jones" films died of congestive heart failure.

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Micky Moore, who started out in Hollywood as a child actor and then went on to become the second unit director for films such as "Patton," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and the first three Indiana Jones movies, died March 4 at his Malibu, Calif., home.

Moore, 98, died of congestive heart failure, the Los Angeles Tines reported.

Moore started his career as a toddler in 1916 in silent films, working with legendary director Cecil B. DeMille as a 5-year-old. He acted as Abraham Lincoln's son Willie in "The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln" (1924).

He transitioned to directing as an adult and contributed to more than 200 movies.

Moore published a memoir of all the Hollywood history he witnessed at the age of 95, calling it "My Magic Carpet of Films."

Moore began working as an assistant director in the early 1950s. He was assistant director on dozens of major motion pictures, including "The Ten Commandments" and a number of Elvis Presley musical films. He was second unit director for major films such as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "Patton," and "The Man Who Would Be King."

Steven Spielberg hired Moore as second unit director on "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

"He was amazing because the pictures he was second-unit director on, such as 'Patton' and 'Indiana Jones' have the highest reputation for their action. And who did the action scenes?" film historian Kevin Brownlow asked in an interview with the Times, referring, of course, to Moore.

According to the Times, Moore was the one who suggested that the truck-chase scene he was in charge of directing in "Raiders" be filmed in narrow tree-lined streets instead of an empty desert to give it more context.

"Micky Moore was exceptional.... He was confident behind the camera and knew when to speak up to make things better," George Lucas wrote in a foreword to Moore's memoir.

"He saw around the corners of my imagination and made significant contributions. For this and for his friendship, I shall always be grateful," Spielberg wrote in a forward to Moore's book.

Moore was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1914 to a shipbuilder father and an actress mother. Moore's brother Patrick was an actor as well, appearing in dozens of silent movies.
 

Mickiana

Well-known member
I feel very inspired reading these life stories and when reading about the ending of one's particular life it is a melancholy moment that collides a bit with the fact that you can witness their work over and over again when you want, living out the joy they made possible. So many involved have already passed on yet I watch them alive and well doing their craft. A part of me doesn't want to reconcile this.
 
The Original Making of has an interesting exchange, (from the begining of the following video but not in it) where Spielberg is busting his chops...I think its right after Micky's added shots, where he says he's going to blame him if it doesn't pan out...have to re-watch the original again.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_Z69ircWfVE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Rocket Surgeon said:
Some great Raiders pics

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Q9FlVlHYH-k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Yes, those "Raiders" photos are very nice. The video doesn't show anything from "Temple", though. Do you know which scenes he directed for it?

The truck chase is my 2nd favourite sequence in all of the Indy films so it really irked me when Spielberg told the audience that he, himself, directed it during the, "AFI Master Class: Art of Collaboration" programme.(n)

It was also nice to learn from the articles that Moore worked on "The Man Who Would Be King" because I love that film.

According to the Wiki entry for him (Michael D. Moore), he was apparently born in Victoria, B.C. (not Vancouver, as those above articles report).

Thanks for posting the news, Rocket, and R.I.P. Micky.
 
Stoo said:
Yes, those "Raiders" photos are very nice. The video doesn't show anything from "Temple", though. Do you know which scenes he directed for it?
The Club Obi Wan to Nang Tao Airport Chase...In Macau I think.
 
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