| Ron Underwood | |
| Birth Name: | Ronald Brian Underwood |
| Birth Date: | 6 November 1953 |
| Birth Place: | Glendale, California, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | University of Southern California |
| Occupation: | Film and television director |
| Years Active: | 1980–present |
| Spouse: | Sandy Underwood |
| Children: | Larissa, Lana, Lauren |
Ronald Brian Underwood (born November 6, 1953) is an American film and television director, known for directing such films as Tremors (1990), City Slickers (1991), Heart and Souls (1993), and Mighty Joe Young (1998).
Underwood was born November 6, 1953, in Glendale, California. In school he lived in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, as an AFS Intercultural Programs exchange student. After graduating from high school, he briefly attended Occidental College as a pre-med student, but transferred to the USC School of Cinema (now USC School of Cinematic Arts) after deciding to become a filmmaker. Underwood majored in cinema with a minor in anthropology. While at USC, he directed the first film produced about the sport of hang gliding, "The New Freedom". It was distributed by Paramount Communications, a short film division of Paramount Pictures.
Upon completion of his fellowship at the American Film Institute, Underwood began working as a staff director for Barr films, a company specializing in the production of educational films. Underwood directed over one hundred short films, including an adaptation of the Kurt Vonnegut short story, "Deer in the Works", starring Dennis Dugan. While directing and producing short films for the educational market, Underwood pursued work in the motion picture industry. One of the first movies Underwood worked on was Futureworld (1976) as a production assistant. The film starred Blythe Danner and Peter Fonda, actors he would later direct in 2004. During the filming of Futureworld, one of his tasks was to babysit a young Gwyneth Paltrow while her mother, Ms. Danner, was shooting. Soon after Underwood served as the location manager on the Peter Hyams directed motion picture, Capricorn One (1978). Another early job was acting as assistant director to first-time director David Schmoeller on Tourist Trap, a low-budget horror film. After this he continued to direct and produce educational films and children's television for the next several years. In 1986 Underwood established himself as a director when his live action/stop motion film adaptation of Beverly Cleary's The Mouse and the Motorcycle won a Peabody Award, which was followed two years later by the sequel Runaway Ralph, for which he received a Daytime Emmy nomination.
Following his critically acclaimed venture into children's television, Underwood moved into directing feature films. His first effort was Tremors[1] starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Michael Gross, and Reba McEntire in her acting debut. Written and produced by his friends Brent Maddock & S. S. Wilson, it was released by Universal Studios in 1990. The film was well received by the critics and later established itself as a cult classic.
Underwood received his first taste of commercial success with 1991's City Slickers, which starred Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby and Jack Palance, who won an Academy Award for his performance. The film made $179m worldwide with a budget of only $27m. It was the tenth most successful film released in 1991 (the fifth most successful in the US). His next film, also written by Maddock & Wilson, Heart and Souls (1993), was again well-received by critics but struggled at the box office (making a total of $16m in the US). It starred Robert Downey, Jr., Alfre Woodard, Kyra Sedgwick, Charles Grodin, Tom Sizemore, Elisabeth Shue and David Paymer. He followed this with Speechless (1994), written by Robert King and starring Michael Keaton, Geena Davis and Christopher Reeve.
Given the opportunity to direct a big-budget film by Walt Disney Pictures in 1998, he was asked to direct Mighty Joe Young, a remake of the 1949 RKO film. The film, starring Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron in her first lead role, was nominated for the Academy Award for Visual Effects and featured some of the most sophisticated visual effects seen in film up to that point, paving the way for later ape films like Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005). The special effects drove production costs to around $90m.
Following Mighty Joe Young, Underwood began work on the Eddie Murphy fronted The Adventures of Pluto Nash. The film also starred Rosario Dawson, Joe Pantoliano and Pam Grier. Unfortunately, the film was greeted with poor reception.
Underwood returned to his roots, directing both low-budget films and television. He directed Stealing Sinatra (2003) for Showtime, for which William H. Macy received an Emmy nomination, Back When We Were Grownups (2004) based on the Anne Tyler novel which garnered star Blythe Danner a nomination for an Emmy, and In the Mix (2005), starring R&B singer Usher and Chazz Palminteri for Lions Gate Entertainment. He has directed many episodic television dramas, including episodes of Monk, Boston Legal, Ugly Betty, Heroes, Grey's Anatomy, Burn Notice, Once Upon a Time, Desperate Housewives, Nashville, Scandal, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Good Fight, Big Shot, Fear the Walking Dead, Evil, La Brea and Elsbeth.
Director
Other credits
| Year | Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Futureworld | Production assistant | |
| 1978 | Capricorn One | Location manager | |
| 1979 | Tourist Trap | First assistant director | |
| 1986 | Crawlspace | Associate producer | |
| 1996 | Executive producer |
| Year | Title | Episode(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | ABC Weekend Special |
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| 2003 | Monk |
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| 2004 | Boston Legal |
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| 2007 | Reaper |
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| 2008 | The Secret Life of the American Teenager |
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| Ugly Betty | |||
| Eli Stone |
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| 2009 | Make It or Break It |
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| Drop Dead Diva |
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| 2010 | Heroes | ||
| Happy Town |
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| No Ordinary Family |
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| Hellcats |
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| Chaos |
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| 2011 | Necessary Roughness |
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| Harry's Law |
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| 2011–2013 | Castle |
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| 2012 | Burn Notice |
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| Desperate Housewives |
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| 2012–2018 | Once Upon a Time | ||
| 2012–2013 | Scandal |
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| 2012–2015 | Grey's Anatomy |
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| 2013 | The Glades |
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| 2014–2015 | Nashville |
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| 2014 | Resurrection |
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| 2014–2016 | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | ||
| 2016 | Quantico |
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| Dead of Summer |
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| BrainDead |
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| No Tomorrow |
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| 2016–2019 | Hawaii Five-0 |
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| 2017–2018 | The Good Fight |
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| 2017 | Kevin (Probably) Saves the World |
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| 2018–2019 | MacGyver |
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| 2018–2019 | Magnum P.I. |
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| 2019–2023 | Fear the Walking Dead |
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| 2019 | Grand Hotel |
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| Evil |
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| 2021–2022 | Big Shot |
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| 2021 | Evil |
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| 2022 | Tales of the Walking Dead |
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| 2022–2024 | La Brea |
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| 2024 | Elsbeth |
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Academy Awards
Academy Awards
Directors Guild of America Award