John T. Lenox; TV Director and Film Educator

John Thomas Lenox, television producer and director who co-founded a UCLA Extension filmmaking program, has died.

Lenox died of an apparent heart attack in his Van Nuys home on Tuesday, his 50th birthday.

In 1989, Lenox and producer Simon R. Lewis set up “Making the Short Fiction Film” for UCLA Extension. The program helped new filmmakers produce, write and direct films to be screened at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

While traditional film schools like those at USC and UCLA approach filmmaking as art, Lenox and Lewis focused on filmmaking as a commercial business--making films to sell.

“I have found this program one of the most rewarding adventures of my life,” Lenox told The Times in 1992. “There’s nothing like seeing a lightbulb going on in someone’s eyes. There’s nothing like seeing something with potential live up to its potential.”

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Lenox was a musical prodigy who performed before the Texas State Music Teachers Assn. when he was 6. He rejected a music scholarship to study economics at Southern Methodist University. He also earned a bachelor’s of fine arts degree in cinematography there.

Lenox moved to Los Angeles in 1970 to enter the Directors Guild of America’s apprenticeship program. He soon became assistant director on popular television comedies including “The Odd Couple,” “Love American Style” and “Happy Days.” Within five years, Lenox made his solo directing debut on “Laverne and Shirley.”

Lenox went on to produce “The Brady Bunch” reunion shows, including “The Brady Girls Get Married,” and the limited series “The Brady Brides.”

He was nominated for an Emmy for his work as executive producer of the NBC miniseries “Long Hot Summer,” starring Don Johnson, Jason Robards and Ava Gardner.

On the big screen, Lenox was best known as executive producer of “Splash” in 1983, starring Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah and John Candy.

Lenox’s most recent production was “Lily Dale” for Showtime.

He is survived by his wife, Marsha, and daughter, Skyler.