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Marion Dougherty to be awarded the 2014 Governors Award
July 31, 2014
GOVERNORS AWARD RECIPIENT AND JURIED AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED FOR 66TH PRIMETIME EMMY® AWARDS
Awards to be presented at 2014 Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Saturday, August 16 at the Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE and air on Sunday, August 24 at 8pm ET/PT and 10pm ET/PT on FXM
NoHo Arts District, CA — (July 31, 2014) – The Television Academy announced today that iconic casting director Marion Dougherty will be posthumously awarded the 2014 Governors Award. Additionally, the Academy announced the juried award winners for Outstanding Costumes for a Variety Program or Special and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation.
The Governors Award along with the juried awards will be presented during the Creative Arts Emmy® Awards on Saturday, August 16. This year’s telecast partner is FXM and the awards will be produced by Spike Jones, Jr. An edited version of the awards will be broadcast on Sunday, August 24 at 8pm ET/PT and 10pm ET/PT. They will additionally be streamed in their entirety as part of the Backstage LIVE show on Emmys.com at 12:00pm PT / 3:00pm ET on Monday, August 25 prior to the Backstage LIVE and Emmy preshow.
Marion Dougherty was a pioneer in the casting industry whose career was built in television. She is being recognized with the Governors Award for defining the role of the Casting Director, changing the profession for both television and film. Dougherty created a name for herself by breaking the mold of traditional casting. Instead of following the common practice of bringing in a large number of the same type of actors to read for a role, she would select three or four very different actors to provide the director with casting options and performers who could bring unique shadings to the roles. It was with this approach that Dougherty cast Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Martin Sheen, William Shatner, Christopher Walken, Robert Duval, Glenn Close and James Caan in some of their earliest roles.
She began her career in 1949 casting over 500 episodes of NBC’s “Kraft Television Theatre.” Her work for this program showcased many young and unknown performers who would go on to become some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Warren Beatty, James Dean, Jack Lemmon, Jack Klugman and more. Following her work on “Kraft,” Dougherty cast such popular shows as “Naked City” and “Route 66.” Dougherty established her own independent casting office and became renowned for her work in feature film. In 1971, she famously cast Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton in the pilot of the long-running Emmy Award-winning series “All in the Family.”
Dougherty was the subject of the acclaimed and Emmy-nominated documentary “Casting By” which debuted on HBO in 2013.