Joseph N. "J.J." Linsalata

1944 - 2009

Joseph N. "J.J." Linsalata, an assistant director for feature films like "Towelhead" and "X-Men 2" and for the television series "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Charmed," died Monday, April 27, 2009. He was 65.

Mr. Linsalata, who was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Havertown, Bryn Mawr and Wynnewood, had a 43-year career in theater, music, film and television. Since 1990, he lived in Thousand Oaks, Calif., where as arts commissioner from 1999 to 2003 he ran and founded the Conejo Teen Video Festival. He succumbed to complications of congestive heart failure at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif., where he had been on the heart-transplant waiting list. He was a 23-year cancer survivor, having undergone a bone marrow transplant at New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer in 1986.

In his 20s, he acted or served as the musical director at the Millbrook Playhouse in Lockhaven, Pa., the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, Mass., and at other theaters in Pennsylvania and New England. He also conducted the orchestra at the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music in productions of "The Fantasticks" and "The Boyfriend." In a playbill for the Berkshire Theatre Festival in 1969, he was called "a triple-threat man as an actor, film director and musician." More recently he was second assistant director for Alan Ball's critically acclaimed "Towelhead" and a physical production specialist for visual effects in 1999's "Stuart Little."

A natural athlete, Mr. Linsalata was co-captain of the football team and captain of the wrestling team in his senior year at Malvern Preparatory School, from which he graduated in 1962. He was an all Inter-Ac lineman and played both offense and defense, with a knack for making interceptions. As a member of the Ocean City Yacht Club in New Jersey, he also was an internationally competitive sailor in one-design Moths and the Olympic-class Finn.

Born March 24, 1944, he was the son of Joseph J. and Natalie Roncace Linsalata. His father was a certified public accountant with offices on Walnut Street, and his mother was a ballerina and dance instructor. He married Theodosia Barron, formerly of Rhinebeck, N.Y., on Dec. 11, 1976, in Manhattan. A former book store owner and film and television production assistant, she is the director of Montessori Children's Place in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Mr. Linsalata received his bachelor's degree in 1966 from Villanova University, where he excelled in theater and performed in productions of the Belle Masque Drama Society and the Turf and Tinsel Society. While at the Yale University School of Drama, where he received a master of the fine arts in 1969, he performed in "We bombed in New Haven." Among other acting credits, he played the roles of both Peter and Jerry in productions's of Edward Albee's "Zoo Story."

In the early 1970s, he was the artist in residence for Connecticut schools, and later moved to New York, where he produced, edited or shot more than 100 commercials, documentaries, and public relations films. Clients included AT&T, IBM and Ford Motor Co. He hired a crew of film editors and worked non-stop editing thousands of feet of film for Bell Telephone's documentary "The Miracle on Second Avenue," about rebuilding New York Telephone's lower Manhattan switching center after a catastrophic 1975 fire destroyed it. He was a director for the Emmy-winning television series "The Big Blue Marble" and the Academy Award-nominated dramatic short feature "Sunday Dinner." He also was a faculty member of New York University's department of film and television. After moving to California, he became a member of the Directors Guild of America.

In addition to "X-Men 2" and Towelhead," he worked as an assistant director, second unit director or visual effects director on a wide range of feature films, including "Balls of Fury," "Nothing to Lose" and "Kindergarten Cop." His credits as an assistant director on television series, pilots or features include "The Others, " "Babylon 5" and "Roseanne: The Unauthorized Biography." His favorite show to work on was Fox network's quirky 1990s police comedy "Bakersfield P.D." Although it ran just one season, it was revived by the cable channel Trio under its "Brilliant But Cancelled" listing.

Mr. Linsalata had a passion for sailing, and co-owned a 29-foot sloop until moving to California. He sailed up the Northeast coast from Long Island to Cape Cod and Maine. He also chartered sailboats in the Caribbean. Among his other interests was skiing, and he and his brother-in-law Richard Sejkousky, skied in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

A memorial service will be from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at Montessori Children's Place, 390 Arcturus St., Thousand Oaks, Calif. The Rev. Ann Church will officiate. Cremation and other arrangements are being handled by the Neptune Society. In addition to his wife, Mr. Linsalata is survived by a son, Joseph Linsalata of Seattle; a brother, Mark (Regina) Linsalata of Normal, Ill.; two sisters, Anita (Dr. David Fields) Roger-Fields, Hercules, Calif., and Marie (Gus) Roszko of Norristown, Pa.; his brother-in-law, Richard, of Thousand Oaks; his father- and mother-in-law, John and Lillian Sejkousky of Thousand Oaks; and several nephews and nieces, and great-nephews and great-nieces. In lieu of flowers, a donation may be made in JJ's memory to the American Cancer Society.