John Llewellyn Moxey, a prolific TV director who helmed episodes of Charlie’s Angels, Mannix, Magnum, P.I. and Murder, She Wrote, died of complications from cancer on April 29 in University Place, Washington. He was 94.
After leaving Bradfield, John served with the 53rd Welsh Division during the Second World War. After the war he went to work in the film and television industry before moving to the USA in 1968.
The Argentinian-born British director was also known for a long string of 1970s-era TV movies, including The Night Stalker, Panic in Echo Park, Smash Up on Interstate 5, Conspiracy of Terror and The House That Would Not Die. His TV credits also include The Saint, The Avengers, Hawaii Five-O, Mission: Impossible, Miami Vice and the pilot episode of Charlie’s Angels.
He began as an editor, then moved on to direct episodes of the British series London Playhouse, The Adventures of Tugboat Annie and Coronation Street. He made his feature film directorial debut with The City of the Dead in 1960 in the United Kingdom, later released in the U.S. as Horror Hotel in 1961. Even though the cast was mostly British actors, they spoke with American accents throughout the film.
His second feature, a 1960 war film called A Foxhole in Cairo, featured Michael Caine as a German soldier in one of his first on-screen roles. Lord of the Rings star Christopher Lee was the leading man in 1966’s Psycho-Circus called Circus of Fear in the U.K.
Before his film career, he served in World War II in the 53rd Division Reconnaissance Corps. Moxey retired to Gig Harbor, Washington, in 1991, where he volunteered in local theatre productions and directed a series of promotional skits for KBTC public broadcasting in Tacoma, Wash. The skits won him a regional Emmy.
He is survived by his wife Jane and sons Robin John Moxey and Timothy Llewellyn Moxey.
