Alexander Grasshoff

Alexander Grasshoff (December 10, 1928 – April 5, 2008) was an American documentary filmmaker and director who received 3 Oscars nominations.

Along with fellow producer Robert Cohn, he is possibly best known for writing and directing the documentary Young Americans, won an Academy Award for best feature documentary in April 1969. However, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences soon found out the film had been shown first in October 1967, thus mading it ineligible for a 1968 award and the Oscar status was revoked. Grasshoff, who reportedly slept with the Oscar on the first night, also directed Academy Award-winning films The Really Big Family (1966) and Journey to the Outer Limits (1973). He also directed the award-winning The Wave (1981), based on Ron Jones' The Third Wave experiment, and Future Shock (1972), based on Alvin Toffler's book and hosted by Orson Welles.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Grasshoff earned a bachelor's degree in cinema at the University of Southern California and began his career in the mail room of Paramount in 1951 working up to assistant editor, then editor. He made his directoral debut in a crime film The Jailbreakers released by American International Pictures that Grasshoff also wrote and produced.

Grasshoff died on April 5, 2008 at his home in Los Angeles of complications from bypass surgery on a leg. He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Madilyn Clark Grasshoff, and two sisters, Yrsa Grasshoff and Edith Rand.

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