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Discover William T. Orr

William T. Orr

Production
1917-09-27 - 2002-12-25
New York City, New York, USA
Also known as: William Ferdinand Quinn Jr., William Turney Orr, Wm. T. Orr, William Orr, Bill Orr

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William T. Orr (September 27, 1917 – December 25, 2002) was an American television producer associated with a series of western and detective programs of the 1950s-1970s. On most of his Warner Bros. series, he was billed as "Wm. T. Orr".

Orr began his career as an actor; his film credits include The Mortal Storm, The Gay Sisters, and The Big Street.

As the first head of Warner Bros. Television department, Orr forged a fruitful alliance with ABC, which resulted in the network having a number of prime time hits, such as Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, and F Troop. At the height of this relationship in the early 1960s, Orr had nine programs in prime time simultaneously. Of these, no program was more significant than one of his earliest, Cheyenne. It was a groundbreaking series that was both the first hour-long western and the first series of any kind made by a major Hollywood film studio consisting entirely of content wholly exclusive to television.

A curator at The Paley Center for Media (previously named The Museum of Television and Radio) once encapsulated Orr's importance to Warner Bros. by saying, "Television began as a step-child. But because of Orr, it became equal with film in creating revenue and jobs for the studio." One of the key reforms he made to effect this change was to move Warner's nascent television department from cramped quarters in New York City to Los Angeles studios separate from the film division.

His impact on the genre of western fiction was recognized with a Golden Boot Award upon the announcement of his death.

Sort credits:

Movie Credits (23)

TV Credits (2)

Behind the Camera (24)

Maverick
6.9
TV
Maverick

Producer

Lawman
5.8
TV
Lawman

Producer

Cheyenne
6.1
TV
Cheyenne

Producer

Hawaiian Eye
5.6
TV
Hawaiian Eye

Producer

77 Sunset Strip
7.1
TV
77 Sunset Strip

Producer

Sugarfoot
5.2
TV
Sugarfoot

Producer

Surfside 6
6.3
TV
Surfside 6

Producer

Bronco
6.0
TV
Bronco

Producer

F Troop
6.3
TV
F Troop

Executive Producer

The Roaring 20's
TV
The Roaring 20's

Producer

Bourbon Street Beat
6.0
TV
The Alaskans
6.7
TV
The Alaskans

Producer

The Dakotas
6.5
TV
The Dakotas

Producer

The Gallant Men
8.0
TV
The Gallant Men

Producer

Mister Roberts
8.3
TV
Mister Roberts

Producer

Wendy and Me
8.0
TV
Wendy and Me

Producer

Hank
4.7
TV
Hank

Producer

No Time for Sergeants
1.0
TV
Conflict
8.0
TV
Conflict

Producer

Room for One More
8.0
TV
Casablanca
8.5
TV
Casablanca

Producer

Kings Row
TV
Kings Row

Producer

The Deadly Riddle

Executive Producer

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