Fielder Cook

Who was Fielder Cook?

Fielder Cook was an American television and film director, producer, and writer whose 1971 television movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story spawned the series The Waltons.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Cook graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature from Washington and Lee University, where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta, then studied Elizabethan Drama at the University of Birmingham in England. He returned to the United States and began his career in the early days of television, directing multiple episodes of such anthology series as Lux Video Theater, The Kaiser Aluminum Hour, Playhouse 90, Omnibus, and Kraft Television Theatre. In later years he helmed the television movies Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys, A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story, Gauguin the Savage, Family Reunion, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Will There Really Be a Morning?, among others; adaptations of The Philadelphia Story, Harvey, Brigadoon, Beauty and the Beast, The Price, Miracle on 34th Street, and The Member of the Wedding; and episodes of Ben Casey, The Defenders, and Beacon Hill.

Cook's feature film credits include A Big Hand for the Little Lady, How to Save a Marriage, Prudence and the Pill, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Eagle in a Cage, and Seize the Day.