Director Winrich Kolbe Dies

Veteran television director Winrich Kolbe has died after a long illness at the age of 71. While Kolbe was frequently in demand to direct hit television shows, he is best known for his direction of 48 episodes in the “Star Trek” franchise. Kolbe died in late September but the news was not released until now.

Kolbe directed at least one show in each series except the original “Star Trek” series that ran from 1966 to 1968. Kolbe retired from directing in 2003 and began teaching at the Savannah Collgege of Art and Design where he retired in 2007.

Kolbe was born in Germany in 1940. His Hollywood career began at Universal as a “staffer”. He began directing in 1977 with his directorial debut of an episode from “The Hardy Boy/Nancy Drew Mysteries”.

Kolbe’s directorial credits include two episodes of “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries”, a episode of the original “Battlestar Galactica” series, an episode of “Barnaby Jones”, an episode of “The Rockford Files”, five episodes of “Magnum, P.I.”, an episode of “The Fall Guy”, two episodes of “ChiPs”, three episodes of “T.J. Hooker”, six episodes of “Scarecrew and Mr.s King”, eleven episodes of the original “Knight Rider” series, 13 episodes of “Spencer: For Hire”, nine episodes of “Hunter”, 16 episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, 13 episodes of “In the Heat of the Night”, an episode of “JAG”, 13 episodes of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, 18 episodes of “Star Trek: Voyager”, one episode of “Star Trek: Enterprise”, two episodes of the TV series “24”, and his final show was an episode of “Threat Matrix”.

No information has been released about family members or where Kolbe died.