Sharron Miller

Sharron Miller
Born	Enid, Oklahoma
Occupation	Director, screenwriter, producer

Sharron Miller is an American television and film director, producer, and screenwriter. She is one of the pioneering women directors who worked regularly in mainstream Hollywood in the 1970s and 1980s (along with Joan Darling, Joan Micklin Silver, Karen Arthur, Gabrielle Beaumont, Lela Swift, and Kim Friedman). In 1983 she was the first woman ever to win the coveted Directors Guild of America Award (DGA Award) for directing a narrative (non-documentary) work.

Career

Born in Enid, Oklahoma and raised in Perry, Oklahoma, Miller began writing and directing short films as a teenager. After graduating from Oklahoma State University in 1971 with a degree in Theatre, she attended graduate school at Northwestern University. In 1972, she went to Hollywood and worked as a script supervisor, sound editor, and film editor before becoming a professional director in 1976 when she was hired to direct the NBC television series, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams. This made her one of the tiny number of women directing in Hollywood at that time.

She has written and directed several short films, but the majority of her work has been in television where she has had a long and prolific career directing television movies and series. Early in her career she studied with acting teachers Jack Garfein, Harold Clurman, and Jeff Corey, and has demonstrated an ability to elicit strong performances from actors. Sharon Gless, Cloris Leachman and Peggy McCay all won Emmy Awards under her direction, and James Stacy received an Emmy nomination.

In 1983 Miller won the DGA Award, two Emmy Awards, the Peabody Award and the Christopher Award for the Afterschool Special she produced and directed, The Woman Who Willed a Miracle. This true-life drama is about Leslie Lemke, the blind and mentally retarded boy with cerebral palsy who became world-famous as a savant pianist.

In 1987 she was nominated for the DGA Award and an Emmy Award for directing two different episodes of the series, Cagney & Lacey (Turn, Turn, Turn part 1 and Turn, Turn, Turn part 2)

Selected filmography

Film
Year	Title	Notes
1981	Cradle Song	Director, Producer, Writer, Editor
1978	House of the Dead	Director
1976	Deportee	Director, Producer, Writer, Editor
1971	Felice	Director, Producer, Writer, Editor
Television
Year	Title	Notes
2002	The District	Director
2001–2002	That's Life	Director, multiple episodes
1999	Hyperion Bay	Director, multiple episodes
1998	Any Day Now	Director
1997	Fame L.A.	Director, multiple episodes
1996	The Client	Director
1996	Mr. & Mrs. Smith	Director
1995	Christy	Director
1994	Hotel Malibu	Director, the pilot
1993	Second Chances	Director, the pilot, multiple episodes
1992–1993	Homefront	Director, multiple episodes
1993	Sisters	Director
1990–1992	The Trials of Rosie O'Neill	Director, multiple episodes
1991	Father Dowling Mysteries	Director
1990	The Outsiders	Director, the pilot
1989	China Beach	Director
1988	Little Girl Lost	Director, TV movie
1987	Pigeon Feathers	Director, PBS American Playhouse Drama
1984–1988	Cagney & Lacey	Director, multiple episodes
1986–1987	L.A. Law	Director, multiple episodes
1986	Pleasures	Director, TV movie
1984	The Paper Chase	Director
1984	Maximum Security	Director, Editor, multiple episodes
1983	The Woman Who Willed a Miracle	Producer, Director, ABC Afterschool Special
1979-81	In Search of. . .	Producer, Director, Writer, Editor
1976–78	The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams	Director, multiple episodes

Awards

Year	Award	Result	Category	Series
1983	Peabody Award	Won	Television Special	ABC Afterschool Special "The Woman Who Willed a Miracle"
1983	Daytime Emmy Award		Outstanding Individual Direction in Children's Programming	ABC Afterschool Special "The Woman Who Willed a Miracle"
			Outstanding Children's Entertainment Special	ABC Afterschool Special "The Woman Who Willed a Miracle"
1983	Christopher Award		Television Special	ABC Afterschool Special "The Woman Who Willed a Miracle"
1983	Film Advisory Board Award of Excellence		Television Special	ABC Afterschool Special "The Woman Who Willed a Miracle"
1983	New York International Film and TV Festival		Gold Medal	This Is the Life (Episode "Bon Voyage and Shalom")
1984	Directors Guild of America Award		Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Shows – Daytime	ABC Afterschool Special "The Woman Who Willed a Miracle"
1984	New York International Film and TV Festival		Gold Medal	This Is the Life (Episode "Reprise for the Lord")
1985	New York International Film and TV Festival		Gold Medal	This Is the Life (Episode "The Face of Gabriel Ortiz")
1987	Viewers for Quality Television Award		Best Director in a Quality Drama Series	Cagney & Lacey (Episode "Turn, Turn, Turn", part 2)
1987	Humanitas Prize Certificate		For Humanizing Achievement in Television	Cagney & Lacey (Episode "Turn, Turn, Turn", part 2)
1988	Women in Film Award		Lillian Gish Award for Excellence in Episodic Directing	Cagney & Lacey (Episode "Don't I Know You?")
1988	Humanitas Prize Certificate		For Humanizing Achievement in Television	Cagney & Lacey (Episode "Don't I Know You?")
1987	Primetime Emmy Award	Nominated	Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series	Cagney & Lacey (Episode "Turn, Turn, Turn", part 2)
1987	Directors Guild of America Award		Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series	Cagney & Lacey (Episode "Turn, Turn, Turn", part 1)

Memberships

• Directors Guild of America
• Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

External links

• Sharron Miller at the Internet Movie Database

Further reading

• "CAGNEY & LACEY. . .and Me" by Barney Rosenzweig, iUniverse, Inc. 2007
• Sixth Annual International Edition of Film Directors: a Complete Guide (USA), 1988, pg. 10–13, by: Michael Singer
• Los Angeles Times (USA) Calendar section, 17 March 1984, pg. 1 + 6, by: Judith Michaelson, "The Girl Who Wanted to Be Like Kazan"