Bud Yorkin

Alan David "Bud" Yorkin (February 22, 1926 – August 18, 2015) was an American film and television producer, director, screenwriter, and actor. Biography Yorkin was born Alan David Yorkin on February 22, 1926, in Washington, Pennsylvania. At age 16, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving during World War II. Yorkin earned a degree in engineering from Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. In 1954, Yorkin became the producer of NBC's The Tony Martin Show, a 15-minute variety program which preceded the nightly news on Monday evenings. In 1955, he produced and directed the live 11-episode half-hour military comedy, The Soldiers, starring Hal March, Tom D'Andrea, and John Dehner. In 1956, he became the producer and director of Tennessee Ernie Ford's NBC half-hour comedy/variety program, The Ford Show. In 1958, Yorkin joined writer/producer Norman Lear to form Tandem Productions, which produced several motion pictures and television specials in the 1960s to 1971 with such major studios like United Artists and Warner Bros. Yorkin directed and produced the 1958 TV special An Evening with Fred Astaire, which won nine Emmy Awards. He later produced many of the hit sitcoms of the 1970s, such as All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, and Sanford and Son.