A
University of Toronto alumnus, class of 1949, Hart soon set his sights on a career in television. That decision, coupled with the fact that Canada was, as yet, still in its pre-television era, dictated his next move, from
Canada's biggest city to
its U.S. counterpart, where Hart supported himself as an
Arthur Murray Studio dance instructor while attending
Erwin Piscator's
New School-affiliated
Dramatic Workshop. Returning in 1952, Hart was promptly hired by the
CBC, In 1963 he left the CBC and moved to the
United States, where, in the following years, he directed episodes for TV series such as
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and
Star Trek, as well as theatrical features, including ''
Bus Riley's Back in Town (1965) and The Sweet Ride'' (1968). He moved back to Toronto in 1970 where he directed several feature films, including ''
Fortune and Men's Eyes (1971), The Pyx (1973), Shoot (1976) and Goldenrod (1976), for which he won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director. In the mid 1970s Hart directed four episodes of Columbo: By Dawn's Early Light (1974), A Deadly State of Mind (1975), Forgotten Lady (1975), and Now You See Him'' (1976). He continued splitting his time between film work in Canada and television work in
Los Angeles throughout the 1980s. He received a
Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film for the mini-series
East of Eden (1981) and a
Gemini Award for Best Direction in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series for the television crime-drama film
Passion and Paradise (1989). ==Personal life and death==