He was unable to find work as an actor after his discharge in the early 1950s until an entertainer with whom he had become acquainted at Camp Roberts hired him as a cast member and production assistant for an early television situation comedy, The Hank McCune Show. He served in combat for several months before reassignment to a Special Services unit responsible for planning entertainment for troops stationed at Camp Roberts near Paso Robles, California. In the same year, he appeared in a bigger part in the feature film One Exciting Week.ĭexter’s nascent acting career was interrupted by his own military service during the Korean War. His first minor film role was in a 1946 Three Stooges comedy Uncivil War Birds. During this time, Dexter, still in his teens, began acting on stage at the Rainbow Theater in Hollywood. In financial distress, the family moved in the late 1930s to southern California, where his brothers had gone in search of work.ĭexter’s brothers all served in the military during World War II. The family moved to Fort Smith (Sebastian County), where they lived comfortably until Dexter’s father was killed in an automobile accident in 1935. He had three older brothers-Foster, William, and James-and an older sister who died in infancy. His parents were William Henry Poindexter and Emma Foster Poindexter, a coal miner and daughter of a prominent coal mine owner. Maury Dexter was born Morris Gene Poindexter in Paris (Logan County), on June 12, 1927. Even when I first started out, my intent was to take a script, whatever that script was, and do the best I could under the circumstances.” Reflecting on his career, Dexter observed: “I’m first and foremost a filmmaker. Both were known less for their artistry than for their efficiency, directing or producing numerous competent but unexceptional films for “Poverty Row” studios within the constraints of tight budgets and deadlines. Dexter’s career paralleled that of an elder Arkansas-born film maker, Jean Yarbrough of Marianna (Lee County). Maury Dexter was a film and television director and producer perhaps best remembered for his work on low-budget horror films during the early 1960s, as well as his long professional association with television legend Michael Landon.
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