{alltv} Olympic Filmmaker Bud Greenspan Dies at 84

Sunday, December 26, 2010

{alltv} Olympic Filmmaker Bud Greenspan Dies at 84

Bud Greenspan, the Emmy winning documentary filmmaker who chronicled the journeys of Olympic athletes for six decades, has died. He was 84.

Greenspan died Saturday in his New York City home from complications of Parkinson's disease, according to The Associated Press.

Greenspan first garnered attention in 1964 with Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin, which followed the Olympian back to the location where he won his first gold medal 30 years earlier. That film and 21 others were part of Greenspan's most famous work, The Olympiad, a 10-part series that won Greenspan his first Emmy in 1976.

Greenspan remained committed to highlighting uplifting stories. "I spend my time on about the 99 percent of what's good about the Olympics and most people spend 100 percent of their time on the one percent that's negative," he once told ESPN.com. "I've been criticized for seeing things through rose-colored glasses, but the percentages are with me."

In 1985, Greenspan received the Olympic Order award. Former International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch called him "the foremost producer, writer and director of Olympic films; more than that, he is an everlasting friend of the Olympic family."

Greenspan also received a lifetime achievement award from the Directors Guild of America in 1995 and a George Foster Peabody Award in 1996. In 2006, he received the lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Greenspan also wrote books and produced nearly 20 spoken-word albums. Most recently, he was working on rough cuts of films from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games.

He is survived by his partner Nancy Beffa.