Rod Daniel

Rod Daniel
Daniel, c. March 2014
Born	Rollin Augustus Daniel III (1942-08-04)August 4, 1942 Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Died	April 16, 2016(2016-04-16) (aged 73) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Director
Years active	1969–2002
Spouse(s)	Martha Mueller (m. 1968–2016)
Children	2

Rollin Augustus "Rod" Daniel III (August 4, 1942 – April 16, 2016) was an American television and film director, active from the late 1970s to the early 2000s. He is best known for his comedy films, including the 1985 Michael J. Fox comedy film Teen Wolf, which was a considerable box office success.

Daniel, the son of a noted surgeon, was expected to follow in his father's footsteps. After returning to his native Tennessee from the Vietnam War, he chose to enter the advertising business, where he directed several commercials before moving to Los Angeles. There, his friendship with television producer Hugh Wilson enabled him to start a career in the television industry as a director and producer for Wilson's sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. Daniel continued to work on shows like Magnum, P.I. and Newhart, until he eventually grew restless with television following the failure of a sitcom he had worked on and chose to make the leap into feature films.

Daniel continued to direct throughout the 80s and 90s, with his other works including the comedies Like Father Like Son, K-9, The Super, and Beethoven's 2nd. He continued to helm episodes of television as well, directing episodes of shows including Everybody Loves Raymond and Caroline in the City. His final film, Home Alone 4, premiered on television in late 2002, after which he retired from the entertainment industry. Daniel then moved to Tennessee for several years and began refocusing on his passion for photography, later painting his entertainment career in a negative light. Eventually, he moved to Chicago, where he died in April 2016 from complications of Parkinson's disease.

Daniel was born as Rollin Augustus Daniel III in Nashville, Tennessee on August 4, 1942. His father, Dr. Rollin A. Daniel Jr., was Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery At Vanderbilt University and a founding member of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. Rod Daniel described his father as "a big-deal doctor who plucked out my mom, this retiring little country girl, and then couldn't get out of the hospital. The man never wanted to come home. He was unavailable. God knows, I went to the graveyard many times and told [him] off. Because that was something I had to work out." Rod Daniel attended high school at Battle Ground Academy in Franklin, Tennessee (near Nashville) and graduated in 1960. He was inducted into the school's Alumni Hall of Fame in 2013. He was a student at Davidson College for two years, but then transferred to Vanderbilt University, where he earned a degree in economics in 1964. Daniel said that although there was an expectation for him to be like his father, who had also attended Vanderbilt, he chose instead to enter the advertising business after returning to Nashville following his service in the Vietnam War as a lieutenant of the United States Army.