Paul Wurtzel

Paul Wurtzel was an assistant director mainly known for his work on Quinn Martin TV productions including The F.B.I. and Barnaby Jones.

A Hollywood native, Wurtzel gained experience in the entertainment field while working on the Fox Western lot during summer vacations from Beverly Hills High School in the 1930s. He studied at UCLA for two years before assisting his father, producer Sol M. Wurtzel, at 20th Century Fox. 

Wurtzel started his career in 1942 as second assistant director on the Laurel and Hardy movie A Haunting We Will Go. He later became assistant director for multiple movies including Anna and the King of Siam (1946).

In 1946, Wurtzel began work at his father’s newly launched independent film company, Sol M. Wurtzel Productions. For the next three years, he acted as the assistant director on B pictures including Voodoo Island and Pharoah’s Curse.

Wurtzel transitioned into television in 1957, starting as the assistant director on The Thin Man. Throughout the next thirty years, he worked on a variety of shows including The F.B.I., Fibber McGee and Molly, The New Breed, 12 O’Clock High, The Invaders, The Fugitive, The Streets of San Francisco and Barnaby Jones.

Wurtzel died on April 18, 2014, at his Hollywood Hills home. He was 92.