Jack Shea, director of 'The Jeffersons' and president of the DGA, dies
Jack Shea dies: The three-time president of the Directors' Guild of America, who directed 'The Jeffersons' and hundreds of other episodes of American television, has died.
Isabel Sanford (l.) and Sherman Hemsley (r.), stars of the television sitcom 'The Jeffersons,' pose for a photograph in New York in 1998. The director of 'The Jeffersons,' Jack Shea, has died.
Kathy Willens / AP / File
LOS ANGELES
Jack Shea, who directed "The Jeffersons" and other TV hits and was a three-time president of the Directors Guild of America, has died at age 84. He died Sunday in Los Angeles from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
During a four-decade career, Shea directed hundreds of episodes for shows such as "Silver Spoons" and "Sanford & Son," along with many Bob Hope specials.
He was president of the Directors Guild from 1997 to 2002. Current President Taylor Hackford says Shea worked to bring women and minorities into guild service.
In 1999, Shea and the DGA board renamed the guild's D.W. Griffith Award as the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award. The guild said that Griffith's classic film, "Birth of a Nation," glorified the Ku Klux Klan and fostered racial stereotypes.