Emmy-winning director and broadcaster Daryl Duke died in Vancouver on Oct. 21 at age 77, following a struggle with pulmonary fibrosis.

Duke worked on both sides of the camera on both sides of the border for five decades, starting at the National Film Board and CBC in the 1960s before moving on to direct U.S. titles including the MOW The President’s Plane Is Missing and the 1983 miniseries The Thorn Birds. He was also among the founders of CKVU (now Citytv Vancouver) and won the Directors Guild of Canada’s lifetime achievement award in 2003.

‘To be a director is to be in love with phantoms, ghosts, attractive ghosts,’ he said at the time. ‘I cannot imagine exchanging the life of a director for any other.’