George Louis Schaefer; TV Producer and Director

George Louis Schaefer, prolific producer and director of some 100 television productions including five that garnered Emmys--”Little Moon of Alban,” “Macbeth,” “The Magnificent Yankee,” “Elizabeth the Queen” and “A War of Children,” has died. He was 76.

Schaefer, who was nominated for more than 30 Emmys, died Wednesday in Los Angeles after a prolonged illness, his family said.

The most honored producer-director in television, Schaefer was the first director in film or television to win the Directors Guild Award four times--for “Macbeth,” “Pygmalion,” “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” and “My Father and My Mother.” He was elected president of the guild in 1979.

During his six-decade career, Schaefer directed or produced 57 “Hallmark Hall of Fame” productions, including live black-and-white performances of “Hamlet,” “Richard II” and “Macbeth.”

He helped form Compass Productions, and his Hallmark-Compass shows set a standard for television excellence. Schaefer became known for attracting talent, luring to television such luminaries as Maurice Evans and Dame Judith Anderson, Julie Harris, Ed Wynn, Christopher Plummer, Trevor Howard, Jason Robards Jr., Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Melvin Douglas, Peter Ustinov and Genevieve Bujold.

“I tell you,” Schaefer told The Times with his trademark enthusiasm in 1973, “we have such exciting, creative people in our business, such depths of talent, that we could do much better television than the British--if they’d let us.”

Although he preferred television specials and movies, Schaefer produced one commercially successful series, “Love Story,” beginning in 1973, and a special history series, “Sandburg’s Lincoln,” from 1973 to 1976.

Among Schaefer’s well-respected miniseries were “Blind Ambition” in 1979 and “The People vs. Jean Harris” in 1981.

Schaefer’s movies for television included “F. Scott Fitzgerald and ‘The Last of the Belles,’ ” “Amelia Earhart,” “Truman at Potsdam,” “First You Cry,” “Mayflower: The Pilgrim’s Adventure,” “A Piano for Mrs. Cimino,” “Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry” and “The Man Upstairs.”

The director and producer was also known for his TV specials on Barry Manilow, James Stewart and television itself.

Born in Wallingford, Conn., Schaefer helped form Pastime Players at his high school in Oak Park, Ill. He graduated from Lafayette College and attended Yale Drama School until he was drafted.

Serving in the Army during World War II, Schaefer directed some 50 plays for the Central Pacific Base Command headed by Evans.

After the war, the developing director went to Broadway, where in 1953 he and Evans co-produced “The Teahouse of the August Moon,” which won the Pulitzer, Tony and New York critics prizes. Schaefer directed other plays including “The Linden Tree,” “The Body Beautiful,” “Man and Superman,” “Write Me a Murder” and “The Last of Mrs. Lincoln.”

He also amassed motion picture credits, producing or directing such films as “Pendulum,” “Doctors’ Wives,” “Once Upon a Scoundrel” and “Macbeth.”

President Ronald Reagan appointed Schaefer to the board of the National Council on the Arts, on which he served from 1982 to 1988.

In 1985, the producer became chairman of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. He retired from the university in 1991.

Schaefer recently published an account of his career, “From Live to Tape to Film.”

Survivors include his wife, Millie, two brothers, William and Louis, and three nieces.

A memorial service is scheduled at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 5 at the Directors Guild in Los Angeles.

The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to the Special Projects Committee of the Directors Guild of America.