James Sheldon was a prolific television director whose career spanned four decades. His 100-plus credits included episodes of such series as The Twilight Zone, Sanford and Son, The Fugitive and Batman.

Sheldon directed one season of the sitcom The Bing Crosby Show; 44 episodes of The Millionaire; 10 of Route 66; eight of Room 222, Love, American Style and My Three Sons; seven of The Fugitive, That Girl and Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color; and the pilot of Family Affair.

He also worked on The Donna Reed Show, Perry Mason, Death Valley Days, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Wagon Train, Naked City, The Bing Crosby Show, Gunsmoke, Petticoat Junction, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Ironside, The Virginian, Doc Elliot, McMillan & Wife, M*A*S*H, The Love Boat, Knots Landing, The Waltons, Cagney & Lacy and The Dukes of Hazzard.

After graduating from the University of North Carolina, where he studied theater, he got his start in entertainment as an NBC page in the early 1940s. He later directed an episode of the radio series We, the People, then moved with the show to television.

In 1952, he began directing the series Mister Peepers, which starred Wally Cox as a shy junior high science teacher. The following year, Sheldon hired and directed James Dean in “Harvest,” for the anthology series Robert Montgomery Presents, helping to launch the actor’s career.

Sheldon died March 12, 2016, in New York City. He was 95.