Don Mischer, prolific TV producer and director of Oscars, Olympics dies at 85
Don Mischer, prolific TV producer and director of Oscars, Olympics dies at 85
Don Mischer, a prolific and acclaimed producer and director of television events including Academy Awards ceremonies, the Olympics and the Super Bowl halftime show, has died at the age of 85.
Mischer died Friday at his home in Los Angeles, according to multiple media reports.
The Texas native won 15 Emmys during his career, a record 10 Directors Guild of America Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting and the 2012 Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television from the Producers Guild of America.
He recently told Deadline that he was retiring.
“I want you to know that, after more than six decades in television, I will be doing my last show tomorrow on Saturday, April 5 here in Los Angeles. I started at the PBS station in Austin at the University of Texas campus in 1963, and I turned 85 last week. Man it feels like time has just flown by,” he told the publication.
That last show was the 2025 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony, sometimes referred to as the “Oscars of Science,” at Barker Hangar Santa Monica.
In addition to multiple Oscars, Emmy and People’s Choice Awards, Mischer produced the Opening Ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 2002 Winter Olympics.
His resume also includes Super Bowl halftime shows by Michael Jackson, Prince, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen, the Obama Inaugural Concert at the Lincoln Memorial, the Democratic National Convention, “Carnegie Hall: Live at 100,” multiple Kennedy Center Honors and the annual 9/11 memorials at Ground Zero in New York.
One of his career highlights came during 1983’s “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever.” Mischer directed the television special, which was taped in front of a live audience at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium and is remembered for the moment when Michael Jackson, at the peak of his fame for the record-smashing “Thriller” album, did the moonwalk during a performance of “Billie Jean,” sending the crowd into a frenzy.
Mischer is survived by his wife Suzan, children Heather, Jennifer, Charlie and Lily, and grandchildren Everly and Tallulah, Deadline reported.
No cause of death was available.
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