Irwin Allen

Irwin Allen was an American television producer and director and the founder of Irwin Allen Productions. He was born in New York City, New York on June 12th, 1916. Before pursuing a career in film and television, Allen turned his eyes towards journalism, graduating from the New York's Columbia School of Journalism and eventually becoming a magazine editor as well as the producer and director of a radio program. He got into the film industry in the mid 1950s, but didn't achieve his first box office success until 1960 when he directed and wrote the screenplay for the remake of The Lost World. The following year, he produced and directed Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which spun off into its own television series in 1964. He also created the 1960s science fiction television series The Time Tunnel, as well as Lost in Space and Land of the Giants.

In the 1970s, Allen returned to film work and became a driving force in the production of a string of disaster films, which became increasingly popular throughout the decade, earning him the nickname "The Master of Disaster". Allen produced the successful The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974) which he also co-directed. He produced several made-for-TV disaster movies including: Flood!, Fire!, Hanging by a Thread, The Night the Bridge Fell Down and Cave In!, both of which were broadcast in 1979. The 1978 films The Swarm and 1979's Beyond the Poseidon Adventure]] were both released theatrically. In 1980, he produced When Time Ran Out.

Irwin Allen passed away in Santa Monica, California on November 2nd, 1991.