Michael O'Herlihy

Michael O'Herlihy was an Emmy-nominated Irish television director whose career spanned thirty years. In , he directed the first season episode . The production staff was well-satisfied by O'Herlihy's work, who helmed the episode well and on schedule, and invited him back to direct and in the third season. However, the director had already signed on for a feature film, Smith!, and had to turn the offer down. (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One; These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Three)
O'Herlihy received an Emmy nomination for directing the 1979 mini-series Backstairs at the White House. Among the actor he directed on this series were Star Trek alumni Ian Abercrombie, , Bibi Besch, Robert Hooks, Bill Quinn, Noble Willingham, and Paul Winfield.
O'Herlihy's many other directorial credits include episodes of such programs as , , , Mission: Impossible (three episodes, including one with Lee Bergere and John Crawford, and another with William Smithers), , , (three episodes, including one with Walter Koenig), (starring Dwight Schultz), Miami Vice, and The Equalizer (starring Robert Lansing and Keith Szarabajka). His credits also include a number of made-for-TV movies, including Peter Lundy and the Medicine Hat Stallion (1977) with John Anderson and Bibi Besch, Desperate Voyage (1980) starring Christopher Plummer and Jonathan Banks, and A Time for Miracles (also 1980) starring Kate Mulgrew and George Murdock.
Although the majority of his credits were in television, O'Herlihy also directed a few feature films for Disney. These include (1966), (1967, with Michael Forest), and (1968).
O'Herlihy was the uncle of actor Gavan O'Herlihy, who appeared in the first season episode , and the younger brother of the Oscar-nominated actor . Five years after his death in 1997, 's last name was used as the name of the astronauts of the first Earth-Saturn probe on a mission patch seen in the second season episode . This was an homage to the director of "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", the episode in which the Earth-Saturn mission was mentioned. Episode writer D.C. Fontana received the same honor.
== Further reading ==
*"Michael O'Herlihy, Storyteller of Tomorrow and Yesterday", Edward Gross, , issue 131, June 1988, pp. 62-63, 72 
== External links ==
* 
* 
es:Michael O'Herlihy 
nl:Michael O'Herlihy
Category:Directors