Michael Preece, the script supervisor turned director who called the shots on multiple episodes of series including Hunter, Dallas and Walker, Texas Ranger, died Thursday. He was 88.

Preece died of heart failure at his Brentwood home in Los Angeles, his daughter, Gretchen wife of two-time Oscar-winning singer-songwriter Randy Newman told The Hollywood Reporter.

Preece directed 19 episodes of NBCs Hunter from 1984-90 during the shows first six seasons; 62 installments of CBS Dallas from 1981-91 (seasons four through 14), plus the 1997 reunion telefilm War of the Ewings; and 70 episodes of CBS Walker, Texas Ranger during its nine-season, 1993-2001 run. Preece also worked on The Bionic Woman, Barnaby Jones, Fantasy Island, Flamingo Road, T.J. Hooker, The New Mike Hammer, Riptide, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest, MacGyver, 7th Heaven and many other series before calling it a career in 2007.

Michael Conway Preece was born in Los Angeles on Sept. 15, 1936. His mother, Thelma, founded the Script Clerks Guild (later IATSEs Script Supervisor Local 871), and his father, Harold, was a cigarette and cigar salesman.

Preece graduated from Alexander Hamilton High School and while a freshman at Santa Monica City College during the summer of 1955 landed a job in set continuity on the syndicated series Waterfront, starring Preston Foster.

He then worked as a script supervisor for all three seasons of NBCs I Spy (1965-68) and on films including The Old Man and the Sea (1958), Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), True Grit (1969), The Hawaiians (1970), The Getaway (1972), The Paper Chase (1973) and Breakheart Pass (1975).

Michael Preece (right) with Marlon Brando on the set of 1962s Mutiny on the Bounty. Courtesy Preece family Preece graduated to director in 75 on an episode of ABCs The Streets of San Francisco and went on to helm two features, The Prize Fighter (1979) and Berettas Island (1993).

Preece by far directed the most Walker, Texas Ranger episodes, and on Dallas, only Leonard Katzman helmed more (only five more, in fact).

In a 2012 interview, Preece said there was a saying on the set of Dallas that the show was director proof, meaning no director could screw it up.

Larry [Hagman] knew his character. He had a tendency to go a little bigger than was needed, so youd try to curb him a little bit, he noted. Or if he didnt know his lines well, sometimes he would have them written on cue cards and Id say, Larry, you sound like youre reading it. But basically, he needed very little direction and that was true of much of the cast. They made it easy.

Preece was a longtime employee of Lorimar Productions, and before he would ever a direct on Dallas, he filmed each castmember firing a gun in order to ensure that no one would know who really shot Hagmans J.R. Ewing in the shows iconic third-season cliff-hanger that aired in March 1979.

In addition to his daughter she said her dad was especially proud to have such an accomplished musician as Newman as his son-in-law survivors include his son, Gary; grandchildren Jason, Ariana, Molly, Patrick, Alice and Adrian; great-grandchildren Jason and Emmy; and great-great-grandson Julian.

He met his first wife, Paula, at Hamilton, and they were married from 1953 until their 1968 divorce. He was then married to Hollywood hairstylist Evelyn Preece from 1969 until her 2017 death.