January 25, 2008–Documentarian Arthur Swerdloff died of a stroke January14 in Los Angeles. He was 86. Swerdloff wrote, directed and produced more than 120 docus and educational films.
Swerdloff's 1951 docu “The Earth Sings” won awards at the Venice and Edinburgh Film Festivals.
His other award-winning films include “Out of Darkness,” which won the Robert Flaherty Award in 1955, “Heart Behind the Whip,” which won the 1959 Writers Guild Show Selection award and “Conquest,” which received the documentary Emmy in 1959. He also received five Cine Golden Eagle Awards for his work on “To Sleep…Perchance to Dream,” “The Big Dig” and several others.
Swerdloff founded SRS Productions and Arthur L. Swerdloff Productions, and worked CBS Reports, NBC White Paper, Dave Wolper Productions, AIP, UA, NASA, USIA and Walt Disney Productions.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he graduated Johns Hopkins Univeristy and received a Masters in Cinema from the Univeristy of Southern California.