Michael Joseph Kane, who had a two-tier career in Hollywood as both an actor and a director, died on April 6, 2011, after a brief stay in a hospice in Palm Desert, California. He was 88.

Born in New York City on July 9, 1922, to immigrant parents Max and Sophie Cohen, Kane served in the American military during World War II, as did his late brothers Israel and Louis Cohen.

Prior to his duty, and immediately upon returning, Kane began working in radio, which led to a move to Hollywood and an early acting role in the late 1940s as a sailor in the original stage production of Mr. Roberts with Henry Fonda. He appeared in minor parts on television and in Los Angeles workshop Theater East, and he became stage manager for the road company of Mr. Roberts. But he found long-term stability as a director for daytime variety show Art Linkletter’s House Party from 1952 to 1969. Kane also peppered his resume as assistant director on episodes of 1st & Ten: The Championship, The Rockford Files and Dallas; and as a director on The Brady Bunch and Gilligan’s Island.

Off Broadway, Kane directed Kurt Vonnegut play, Happy Birthday, Wanda June. He also served on many organizations, and for a time served as president of the Radio and Television Director’s Guild in 1960. he was lso on the Health and Pension Plan Board of the Directors Guild of America.

“As we celebrate the guild’s 75th anniversary, we honor one of the architects of the modern Directors Guild of America,” said DGA president Taylor Hackford, in a statement. “We owe a debt of gratitude to Michael and the other early leaders who recognized that a unified guild would lead to improved working conditions, creative rights and economic benefits for all guild members. Thank you, Michael, for everything. You will be missed.”

Upon retirement from full-time television work, Kane reinvented himself as a faculty member of the Dept. of Theater & Dance at Cal State Fullerton, where he taught for five years.

Kane is survived by two daughters from his marriage to Winifred June Fay, which ended in divorce in 1975, four grandchildren, and long-time companion Honey Protas and her three sons and five grandchildren.