Leonard Horn

Leonard J. Horn (August 1, 1926 – May 25, 1975) was a director of US prime time television programs in the 1960s and 1970s, and helped shape a number of “classic” adventure and sci-fi series, including Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Wonder Woman. Contemporary fan-sites such as the viewer polling pages of the Internet Movie Database (hereafter IMDB) and TV.com show Horn’s work to have stood the test of time; many of the 94 episodes he directed for 34 prime-time television series rank among the more popular moments in the first “Golden Age of Television”. Horn was born in Bangor, Maine. He started directing in 1959-1962 for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and was soon among a stable of directors working on such popular prime-time programs as The Untouchables, Route 66, and The Fugitive. Horn’s most sustained contribution to one series was directing ten episodes of Mission: Impossible, including five in the first season. His “Operation Rogosh” (1966), the series’ 3rd episode, ties among IMDB voters for the most popular first-season show, and most of his other efforts get high marks. In one of Horn’s second-season episodes, “Trek”, Peter Graves appeared for the first time as “Mr. Phelps”.