MUMBAI: 83-year-old Robert Mulligan, the Oscar-nominated director of To Kill a Mockingbird and Summer of '42, died of heart disease at his Connecticut home on Friday, 19 December.

Born in New York on 23 August, 1925, Mulligan studied at Fordham University before serving with the United States Marine Corps during World War II. At war's end, he obtained work in the editorial department of the New York Times, but left to pursue a career in television.

Employed by the CBS network, Mulligan began his television career as a messenger boy and then worked his way up and learned the business. In 1959 he won an Emmy Award for directing The Moon and Sixpence, a made-for-television production that marked the American small-screen debut of Sir Laurence Olivier.

In 1957 Robert Mulligan directed his first motion picture Fear Strikes Out. Five years later he received wide acclaim and Academy Award and Directors Guild of America nominations for To Kill a Mockingbird.

In 1972, he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best director and another Directors Guild Award for the highly successful Summer of '42.