Morton Zarcoff Lifeless: Producer, USC Movie Co-Chair Was 95

Morton Zarcoff, a producer on the 1968 crime sequence “It Takes a Thief” and former co-chairman of the College of Southern California’s (USC) Movie & Tv division, died Dec. 1 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Middle in Los Angeles after a quick sickness. He was 95.

Zarcoff’s dying was confirmed by his son, Larry Zarcoff.

Zarcoff was born on Aug. 23, 1927 and grew up a Brooklyn native, the place he frequented film theaters and developed a love of cinema. After serving within the Navy, Zarcoff resumed his educational research at Brooklyn School and later the College of Michigan, the place he was launched to radio and tv.

Zarcoff’s first main manufacturing credit score was as a author on Season 1 Episode 14 of the sci-fi anthology sequence “Tales of Tomorrow,” although he moved as much as wield twin affiliate producer and author titles on the 1960 present “Project: Underwater” whereas working at Nationwide Telefilm Associates.

Within the late ’60s, Zarcoff moved throughout the nation to Los Angeles, the place he was decided to make a reputation for himself, which he did on the hand of Common Tv. Different notable works included in Zarcoff’s filmography embody the 1975 present “Change,” for which he was an affiliate producer, and 1979’s “The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo,” which he labored on as a supervising producer.

Shortly after the beginning of his Los Angeles residency, Zarcoff started educating movie and tv part-time at USC, the place he remained a beloved fixture for over 1 / 4 of a century — each as a professor and a co-chair of the division. In 1987, Zarcoff leveraged his personal filmmaking skills on the college to jot down and direct a 34-minute documentary about John Randolph Hubbard, USC’s eighth president, as a part of the H. Dale Hilton Dwelling Historical past Challenge.

Zarcoff is survived by his two sons, Larry and Edward; his three grandchildren, Alexander, Aliza and Roo; and his brother, Samuel. His spouse, Marilyn, died in Might 2019.