Robert Mulligan, who died on 20 December, 2008, aged 83, was an American movie director best known for his Oscar-winning film To Kill a Mockingbird.

The 1962 adaptation of the Harper Lee novel won critical acclaim and three Oscars: 'Best Writing', 'Best Art Direction' and 'Best Actor' for Gregory Peck's portrayal of Atticus Finch. Meanwhile Mr Mulligan was nominated for the 'Best Director' prize as well as the Golden Palm at Cannes.

During his career his other accolades included an Emmy for the The Moon and Sixpence (1959), a television film starring Laurence Olivier, another Golden Palm nomination for the film-noir The Nickel Ride (1974) and a 'Career Achievement Award' from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in 2006.

He worked with some of the biggest names in the business, including Tony Curtis in the comedies The Rat Race (1960) and The Great Impostor (1961), Rock Hudson in the adventure film The Spiral Road (1962), Natalie Wood and Robert Redford in the coming-of-age movie Inside Daisy Clover (1965), and Steve McQueen in Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) and Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965).

Like many of his stars, Gregory Peck would also return to work with Mr Mulligan in Western The Stalking Moon (1968), also starring Eva Marie Saint. His popularity with actors was testament to his talents, even though he spent most of his career on the fringes of commercial and critical success.

He gave movie debuts to Robert Duvall as 'Boo' in To Kill a Mockingbird and Reese Witherspoon in The Man in the Moon (1991), his final film, and throughout his career he was praised for his handling of young actors.

Robert Mulligan, born in the Bronx on 23 August, 1925, served with the Marine Corp during the Second World War before a brief career in journalism. Changing his ambitions to television, he began as a messenger boy and worked himself up the ladder.

During the 1950s he directed television plays for strands such as Suspense, Playhouse 90 and Studio One. His first film was Fear Strikes Out (1957), a baseball drama starring Anthony Perkins and Karl Malden, but it was his award-winning The Moon and Sixpence that established him in Hollywood.

Although his output of 20 films in total was somewhat hit and miss, his career was reviewed favourably with hindsight and he became known as an early adept of the coming-of-age genre, although he rejected that term.

"I think it's 'coming to life'," he once said. "I felt, when I looked back on it, that I really didn't know what life was about until I was somewhere in my teens, when you become aware that sooner or later you're going to have to walk out the front door. Mother and father are not going to be there, you're not going to be protected. All those things become exciting and terrifying at the same time."

Mr Mulligan died of heart disease in the town of Lyme, Connecticut. He was survived by his wife Sandy, three children from an earlier marriage, two grandchildren and a brother. Another brother, Richard Mulligan who died in 2000, was a television sitcom actor.