David S. Cass Sr.

David S. Cass Sr. was a stunt performer and coordinator who became a second unit director, producer and director. Born in 1942, he started in the film industry as an extra and soon divided his time between acting roles and stunt work, with the stunts eventually taking precedence. He became a leading Hollywood stunt coordinator and second unit director, work that led him into producing films and then into first-unit directing. His writing credits include Enter the Devil (1972) and Hard Ground (2003), and he co-produced Miramax's Texas Rangers (2001) and the Burt Reynolds television movie Hard Time (1998) and its follow-ups, writing one installment and directing Hard Time: The Premonition (1999). He directed the Hallmark Channel miniseries Johnson County War (2002), an adaptation by Larry McMurtry, two Gentle Ben movies, Night of the Wolf (2002) with Anne Archer and Robert Urich, and Straight from the Heart (2003), which drew the channel's biggest ratings for a TV movie.