Director Robert Mulligan, best admired for bringing To Kill A Mockingbird to the screen with Gregory Peck, has died of heart disease at age 83. Mulligan cut his teeth directing dramas for television, and the experience cemented a career that favored great performances over technical razzle-dazzle. (Though it should be said that Mockingbird is a very good-looking film.) Under Mulligan's eye, five different actors received Academy Award nominations and a young Reese Witherspoon made her screen debut in his final feature, 1991's The Man In The Moon. He was also responsible for pairing a young, pre-Doogie Howser Neil Patrick Harris with Whoopi Goldberg in 1988's Clara's Heart, but in a career so distinguished, he should be allowed to take a Mulligan.
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