Louis ‘Duke’ Goldstone; Film and TV Director

Louis “Duke” Goldstone, 84, film and television director and producer for more than 60 years. Born in Omaha, Neb., Goldstone moved to Hollywood when he was 18 and began his entertainment career as a property man at Universal. He moved up as editor and then director at Paramount, RKO and Pathe, working mostly on short films. For Swift-Chaplin Productions, he directed classic animated commercials in the early days of television featuring such characters as Speedy Alka-Seltzer, the Hamm’s Bear and the Jolly Green Giant. In the 1950s, he directed popular television variety shows for Liberace, Frankie Laine, Horace Heidt, Connie Haines and Florian Zabach, and Betty White’s first situation comedy, “Life With Elizabeth.” In 1965, Goldstone established an industrial film company, RFG Associates, and for the next 30 years produced hundreds of commercial and educational films. On April 16 in Los Angeles of heart failure.