Gilbert Cates (born Gilbert Katz) was born June 6, 1934, in New York City. He attended Syracuse University, receiving a B.A. in 1954, and an M.A. in Fine Arts in 1965. Mr. Cates also studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, New York City, in the summer of 1953, and served as an instructor of speech and drama at Syracuse University in 1955. He is married and has three children.
Gilbert Cates has been active in the fields of television, motion pictures and the theater. He has produced and/or directed numerous television shows, including International Showtime (NBC-TV, 1962-1965), the Electric Showcase specials (ABC-TV, 1964-1965), the pilot for Hootenanny (ABC-TV, 1963) and many daytime game shows such as Camouflage (ABC-TV, 1961-1962).
Among his television productions during the 1970s and early 1980s were: To All My Friends on Shore (1972); The Affair (1974); After the Fall (1974); Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye (1977); Ford's Theater 10th Anniversary (1978); Stubby Pringle's Christmas (1978); The Gift of the Magi (1978); The Promise (1979); The Kid from Nowhere (1982); and Hobson' s Choice (1983).
In the theater, Mr. Cates served as stage manager for Shinbone Alley (1957), was associated with his brother Joseph Cates in the production of Spoon River Anthology (1963), and What Makes Sammy Run? (1964). He also produced You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running (1967) and I Never Sang for My Father (1968); these two were simultaneous Broadway successes. Cates produced and/or directed several Broadway plays during the early 1970s, all of which had short runs. They were The Chinese and Dr. Fish, Solitaire/Double Solitaire, and Voices. He also directed a three-week engagement of Arthur Miller's The Price at the Long Wharf Theater in Connecticut in 1971. In 1980, Cates produced and directed Sidney Michael's Tricks of the Trade, with George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere, which closed after only a few performances.
For motion pictures, Mr. Cates has produced and directed the feature-length film Rings Around the World (Columbia Pictures, 1966), and the short subject The Painting (Union Films, 1962), which was named best short of 1962 by the International Film Importers and Distributors. The film version of I Never Sang for My Father was released to critical acclaim in 1970; other Cates' films included Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973); One Summer Love (1976); The Last Married Couple in America (1980); and Oh God, Book II (1980).
Cates was awarded a Chancellor's Medal from Syracuse University in 1974. He served as vice president of the eastern region of the Director's Guild of America in 1965, and of the western region in 1980. He was elected president of the Guild in 1983. Since 1977, the Cates family has resided in Los Angeles.
