Jeannot Szwarc, who first dipped into the world of all things Super with the 1984 Supergirl movie and later served as director for over a dozen episodes of Smallville, has passed away, as revealed by an article at The Daily Jaws website. He was 85 years old.
Szwarc had a long list of credits to his name, including the film Somewhere in Time starring Christopher Reeve, Jaws 2, episodes of The Rockford Files, Heroes, Supernatural and more. For Smallville, he seemed to be beloved by the cast, who all would often imitate his unmistakable accent when reminiscing about him. His first episode of Smallville came in Season 3 with the episode “Perry” which introduced Michael McKean as Perry White; later stories he would direct included “Velocity,” “Spell,” “Recruit,” “Blank,” “Exposed,” “Vengeance,” “Reunion,” “Noir,” “Bride,” “Kandor,” “Kent,” and the show’s 200th episode, “Homecoming.” Interestingly, he did not direct any episodes with Supergirl in them, despite being the director of that movie. His final credited directing job came with a 2019 episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
Our condolences go out to his friends, family, colleagues, and everyone who had been touched by his thoughtful work. Our thanks and appreciation go out to Derek Russell from SHoE (the Internet’s first Smallville podcast!) for the tip.