Sheldon Leonard Biography

Fast Facts

• Won a Board of the Governors Award
• Received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Casting Society of America
• Won a Directors Guild of America Honorary Life Member Award and a Robert B․ Aldrich Achievement Award
• Quote: "[on television] "It occupies a sizable portion of the waking time of the majority of the people in this country․ It conditions their thinking․ It influences their attitudes․ It has changed the nature of the American family․""
• Quote: "The producer has to present a series of playable scripts ․․․ that's ready to shoot [each] week․ And, it's got to have the integrity of character from one script to another․ You have to respect the history of the show․ It's a very complicated thing․"
• He cast Bill Cosby in the 1965 TV series "I Spy," which made him one of TV’s first black leading men in a series
• Specialized in playing supporting roles in films such as "It’s a Wonderful Life" and "Guys and Dolls․"
• Produced several popular CBS shows, including "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "The Andy Griffith Show," "Make Room for Daddy" and "Gomer Pyle: USMC․"
• The writers of the TV series "The Big Bang Theory" honored him by naming two of the main characters after him, Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter