Norman Campbell, 80; TV Producer, Composer Won Emmys for Ballets

Norman Campbell, 80, a Los Angeles native who grew up in Canada and became a composer and television producer, died Monday of a stroke, according to the Toronto Star.

In 1952, Campbell was producer of the first show ever seen on Canada’s CBC-TV, “Let’s See.” He wrote the music for the musical version of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables,” first shown on CBC-TV in 1956 and later adapted for the stage by Campbell and others, premiering at Prince Edward Island’s Charlottetown Festival in 1965.

He worked often in the U.S., directing episodes of “All in the Family” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and network specials featuring Olivia Newton John and Diana Ross.

Born Feb. 4, 1924, he earned a math and physics degree at the University of British Columbia and worked in meteorology before turning to a career in music and television. He built his reputation as a producer of ballet for TV, beginning with “Swan Lake” in 1956. He won Emmys in 1970 for “Cinderella” and in 1972 for “The Sleeping Beauty.”