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dga quarterly 61 in place; and in Katharine Hepburn's dubious kitchen skills playing off the brick-faced reactions of Spencer Tracy in Woman of the Year (1942). (Stevens' own hooded eyes, stony countenance, and dry hu- mor gave Tracy an ideal role model.) Even after World War II, when Stevens could not bear to direct another full-on comedy, an unbreak- able spirit of buoyancy informs his observation of human experi- ence—sometimes at its loneliest and most tragic. Think of Montgom- ery Clift in A Place in the Sun and James Dean as Jett Rink pacing off his meager landholdings in Giant. Stevens even brought a moment of comic relief to The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), when he stages a cat getting its head stuck in a small funnel while storm troopers lurk below. The result is both funny and nightmarish. Stevens' positive spirit was entwined with the history of the Guild, and his sense of duty and clarity of purpose were carried forward by his family. Was the secret to his gift ever articulated father to son? "That's such an important question," George Jr. says, after think- ing it over. "I worked with my father. I saw how he dealt with people, how he drove himself. I learned to be a father from him, and I've been rewarded to see my sons Michael and David become such good fathers." If there is a secret, it is in the doing, he concludes. "We were each raised with the belief that fine films were the result of one individual's point of view and control. That was the guiding principle of Dad's life." ® of the Stevens name was at first relatively remote. "My father had grown up in Hollywood and seen what his father went through," Mi- chael said. "He wanted me and my brother David and our stepsis- ter Caroline to have other choices than showbiz, if we wanted them. We grew up exposed primarily to journalism and politics." A political career was on Michael's mind when he entered Duke University in 1985. Later he escaped to Paris to pursue a woman and write a novel, neither of which worked out, but at a movie theater on the Left Bank he discovered his grandfather's films. "I saw The More the Merrier, and that opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibility." The Stevens legacy was again passed down from father to son. After serving as associate producer on The Thin Red Line, Michael directed the feature Bad City Blues (1999), took over production of the Ken- nedy Center Honors show in 2003, and oversaw HBO's coverage of President Obama's inauguration in 2009. Michael directed, wrote, and produced more than 30 primetime event and concert specials. For the Kennedy Center Honors, he earned a string of Emmy nomi- nations and wins. And he was chairman of the 65th and 66th Annual DGA Awards, in 2013 and 2014. "Michael had so many of his grandfather's qualities," says George Jr. "He was headstrong; he liked to think things through—after which he was extremely decisive. The great improvement he brought to the Kennedy Center Honors was a sense of narrative as the evenings unfolded." DGA Moments in Time, made to honor the DGA's 75th anniversary, was a particularly proud moment in Michael's all-too-brief career as a director. "He delved into the history of the Guild," recalls his father, getting Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg to serve as on-camera narrators of important events in the life of the organization; its founding, battles for creative rights, and the showdown over the blacklist each form a chapter in the drama. "Michael's instincts were so good as a storyteller," says George Jr., "particularly his great grasp that it is images that tell a story." He invited his son to direct the HBO production of Thurgood (2011), based on the one-person play George Jr. had written and presented on Broadway. Michael then helmed a feature-length documentary about the great Washington Post political cartoonist, Herblock: The Black and the White (2013). Like his father and grandfather before him, Michael was, as he declared after completing that film, "committed to the concept of movies that stand the test of time." Indeed, all three Stevenses have so reiterated this in inter- views over the years that "To Stand the Test of Time" could appear on a family coat of arms. Certainly timing defines the creative nucleus of George Stevens Sr.'s body of work. It is an intangible yet precise qual- ity that lives on in one classic film after another—in the deadly funny dinner scene in Alice Adams when a lacy headpiece worn by Hattie McDaniel simply won't stay QUICK STUDY: George Sr. (seated) and George Jr., who shot 2nd unit location footage, prepare for a day's work on the set of The Diary of Anne Frank. George Jr. worked with his father on several films, including A Place in the Sun, Shane, and Giant.