George McCowan; TV Director

George McCowan, 68, a director who specialized in films for television and pilots of such popular series as “Cannon” and “Charlie’s Angels.” The Canadian native attended the University of Toronto and acted and directed with the Straw Hat Players, the Ottawa Repertory Theatre, the Vineland Theatre in the Niagara Falls area and the Crest Theatre in Toronto. A pioneer director at the prestigious Stratford Shakespearean Festival, he also directed several programs for Canadian Broadcasting Co. before moving to the U.S. in 1967. McCowan directed a few feature films, such as “Frogs” and “Shadow of the Hawk,” but usually worked on pilots or episodes of such popular television series as “Barnaby Jones,” “Starsky and Hutch,” “Hart to Hart” and “The FBI.” He was never dazzled by Hollywood, bluntly telling a Canadian interviewer in 1978: “I do shootouts, car chases, that sort of garbage.” On Nov. 1 in Santa Monica of emphysema.