The Mouse That Roared

Jack Arnold (October 14, 1912 – March 17, 1992) was an American television and film director, best known as one of the leading filmmakers of 1950s science fiction films.

Born Jack Arnold Waks in New Haven, Connecticut and as a child read a lot of science fiction books and magazines which would lead to his fandom of science fiction.

During World War II Arnold had intended to become a pilot but was placed in the Signal Corps. Whilst there he learned the tricks of filmmaking from Robert Flaherty.

Arnold directed a number of science fiction films starting in the 50s. The best known of these, the science fiction films It Came from Outer Space, Tarantula, Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Incredible Shrinking Man, are noted for their atmospheric black-and-white cinematography and unusually sophisticated scripts. Later in his career, he went to England to direct the early Peter Sellers film, The Mouse That Roared, in which Sellers played three roles, one of them in drag.

Arnold began his television career in 1955 with several episodes of Science Fiction Theater. He went on to direct the long-running television series Perry Mason and Peter Gunn. He also directed episodes of such television shows as Alias Smith and Jones, The Fall Guy, The Brady Bunch, and Gilligan’s Island, as well as the 1980 TV movie Marilyn: The Untold Story.

Arnold died of arteriosclerosis in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California at the age of 79. —Wikipedia