Born in
Kankakee, Illinois on December 17, 1923, Erickson began his career at
Paramount Pictures in 1944, ultimately working his way up to production manager. Among the productions he managed during his time at Paramount were all five of the films that director
Alfred Hitchcock made for the studio in the 1950s:
Rear Window (1954),
To Catch a Thief (1955),
The Trouble with Harry (1955),
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and
Vertigo (1958). Erickson left Paramount to work with screenwriter and director
John Huston as production manager on
The Misfits (1961) and
Freud: The Secret Passion (1962). He later reteamed with Huston as associate producer of
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). He was also associate producer of
Richard C. Sarafian's
Man in the Wilderness (1971) and
Roman Polanski's
Chinatown (1974), both of which featured Huston in supporting acting roles. Ericson himself appeared in
Chinatown (billed as "Doc Erickson") as the man in the barber shop who is challenged by
Jack Nicholson. Erickson later served as both executive producer and production manager on several popular films of the 1980s and 1990s, including
Urban Cowboy (1980),
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and
Groundhog Day (1993). He was also the executive producer of
Robert Altman's
Popeye (1980) and executive in charge of production of
Ridley Scott's
Blade Runner (1982). His later film credits included
Kiss the Girls (1997),
Return to Me (2000) and
Windtalkers (2002). Erickson died in
Las Vegas, Nevada on June 28, 2017, due to
heart complications. He was 93. ==Films==