Biography
He made his debut in vaudeville as a boy soprano in 1924. Although he hated vaudeville, he loved the theatre and developed a career as a stage actor, appearing in such plays as Home of the Brave, The World We Make, Key Largo, Golden Boy and Nature Son. A short career as a film actor followed, his most notable appearance being in the classic 1947 boxing film Body and Soul, in which he played the role of Shorty Pulaski.
Subsequently Pevney became a prolific film and television director, with a directing career that spanned over 80 productions from 1950 to 1984. Among those were films including Female on the Beach (1955) with Joan Crawford and Jeff Chandler, Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) with Debbie Reynolds and Leslie Nielsen, the James Cagney vehicle Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), The Crowded Sky (1960), and Westerns such as The Plunderers (1960).
Pevney also helmed multiple episodes of noted television series, including Bonanza, Star Trek, The Paper Chase, and Trapper John, M.D.. He tied with Marc Daniels for directing the greatest number of original Star Trek episodes, including such fan favorites as "The Devil in the Dark, "Arena", "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Amok Time", and "The Trouble With Tribbles". Star Trek NBC executive Herb Solow and executive co-producer Robert Justman write, in their 1996 book Star Trek The Real Story, of Pevney:
Joseph Pevney was an ex-actor turned director. Some former actors become good directors; some become hack directors. Pevney was the former, but more than just "good."
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