Egbert Warnderink "E.W." Swackhamer (born on January 17, 1927) was an American television and film director. He directed the 1977 film Spider-Man. The film later turned into a television series that lasted 13 episodes. E.W. directed the Season 1 M*A*S*H TV series episode "Chief Surgeon Who?"
Swackhamer's credits also included L.A. Law, Murder, She Wrote, Bewitched, The Partridge Family and The Flying Nun. Of the 27 pilots for television series directed by Swackhamer, 18 went into regular production, including Law & Order, Eight Is Enough, Quincy, M.E., S.W.A.T and Nancy Drew.
Swackhamer was the stage manager for the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He went to Hollywood in 1961, after working on and off Broadway and for national companies as an actor, stage manager and director. Swackhamer received an Emmy Award for directing the six-hour mini-series The Dain Curse during the 1977-78 season.[1]
He was the father of Ten Eyck Swackhamer and Elizabeth Swackhamer with his first wife, Gretchen Shane. He married actress Bridget Hanley on April 26, 1969 and they had two daughters, Bronwyn (born March 3, 1971) and Meagan.[2] He was working as a director on Star Command at the time of his death, of a ruptured aortic aneurysm, on December 5, 1994.
