Yesterday at 8:30PM (PST) in Seattle Wa. saw the quiet passing of Richard Thomas Heffron, film director. Richard started off in documentary films, experiencing and chronicling bloody combat in the Vietnam war, homelessness in the streets of Washington D.C., and the apex of the 1960’s/70’s San Francisco rock scene directing the iconic “Fillmore”.
In a difficult business, Richard then made a name for himself in TV movies, TV series, feature films, and mini-series. Richard devoured history. Perhaps this was his specialty, as he brought it wonderfully alive on screen - the Indian wars, the French Revolution, the Civil War, Vietnam, the Sixties. He even sank the Titanic convincingly, on a TV movie budget.
Over the past 14 years, my family and I had the privilege of visiting with him many times in Tarzana, CA , Santa Barbara, CA, and Bainbridge Island, WA. We even toured the Canadian Maritimes and the Cabot Trail together. We had occasion to talk about life, politics, movies, sports and the markets - most recently 3 weeks ago at the Streamliner diner in Winslow, WA. My second son Thomas is even named after him.
You see, Richard was my father-in-law, and let it be known that he is loved, and will be missed.
Cheers,
Allocator
4 Comments
October 1, 2007 at 7:15 pm
[...] Richard T. Heffron (1930-2007) – Director of Futureworld, Foolin’ Around, and the concert doc Fillmore. He also wrote the screenplay for and was an associate producer on The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery, which starred Steve McQueen. He died August 27 in Seattle. (son-in-law) [...]
October 1, 2007 at 9:53 pm
[...] Richard T. Heffron (1930-2007) – Director of Futureworld, Foolin’ Around, and the concert doc Fillmore. He also wrote the screenplay for and was an associate producer on The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery, which starred Steve McQueen. He died August 27 in Seattle. (son-in-law) [...]
October 2, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Sorry for your loss. I write the Hollywood Obituary column at Entertainment Insiders. I’m paying tribute to your father-in-law in my August column. I enjoyed his work very much. As I can’t find your e-mail address, I’m leaving this message to ask if you would mind sharing a photo of Mr. Heffron for my column. Check it out. It is a respectful column paying tribute to those in the industry who have passed on. You can delete this reply from your website if you like as it was meant as a personal message to you and not a public plug for my site.
June 18, 2009 at 9:47 am
I was watching a film and noticed that the director was Richard Heffron, as I was a Heffron before marriage, I was wondering if somewhere along the line we might have been related, my late fathers name was Thomas Robert Heffron and his father was also called Thomas. He was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England and moved to West Bridgford, Nottingham, England as a baby with his sister, brother and father as his mother had left home and the only way his father could work was by letting his sister my fathers aunt look after the children for him, which meant him as I said bringing them to Nottingham. My uncle William Bill emigrated to Australia, and my Aunt Gertrude Gert lived in Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire. I’ve put all this in just in case so that you all know where some of the family were, both my aunt and uncle have also passed away, infact the all died within 2 years of each other. Just so you know I don’t want anything I am just interested to know if there are more relations out there that I didn’t know about, I just find it fascinating to see how many different branches of a family there are. Thank you for your time Mrs Sandra Newport