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HomeArts & EntertainmentOscar-Winning Marin County Filmmaker John Korty Has Died at Age 85

Oscar-Winning Marin County Filmmaker John Korty Has Died at Age 85

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Oscar-Winning Marin County Filmmaker John Korty Has Died at Age 85

The director of Go Ask Alice and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman was the inspiration for Coppola and George Lucas to start up their own Bay Area film studios, and remained in Marin County throughout his prolific career.

You may have first seen the work of Marin County film director John Korty on Sesame Street, in animated segments like the one seen below. But he was not known for children’s work. He directed the film version of the debauched drug-use tale Go Ask Alice, won an Emmy for the 1974 film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, and a Best Documentary Oscar for 1977’s Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?. Korty passed away at his Point Reyes home last Wednesday, according to the Bay Area News Group. He was 85.

Korty arrived at Stinson Beach in 1964, creating his own film studio there. Its first production was a film called The Crazy-Quilt, seen below, which shot largely in Golden Gate Park and narrated by Burgess Meredith. At that point Korty had already won his first Oscar, a Best Documentary Short Subject award for his debut Breaking the Habit.

Korty would go on to win an Emmy award for the made-for-TV film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, and a Best Documentary Oscar for Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?.

His greatest legacy may be spawning the notion of starting a Bay Area-based film studio, an idea duplicated by George Lucas (Skywalker Ranch) and Francis Ford Coppola (Zoetrope Studios). Korty was actually briefly a tenant at Zoetrope Studios, though as legend has it, he left when Coppola raised the rent on him.

Korty is survived by his wife Jane Sylvia, and three children Jonathan, David and Gabriel.

Related: Marin Theatre Company to Digitally Premiere ‘The Catastrophist,’ a New Play About Pandemics [SFist]

Image: Directors Guild of America

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