Thomas Madigan, 85; Noted Producer of PBS Documentaries

Thomas Madigan, 85, Emmy Award-winning producer of PBS television documentaries, died July 8 in New York of complications from heart surgery.

Madigan won an Emmy in 1980 for “The Hunter and the Hunted,” a PBS documentary about Nazi war criminals. He also produced PBS’ “The Adams Chronicles,” which won four Emmys in 1976.

In 1969, filming at the artist’s home in Spain, Madigan produced the documentary “Salvador Dali: A Soft Self-Portrait,” which won best documentary at the Venice Film Festival.

Madigan, a New York native, was educated at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and was an Army captain in the Pacific during World War II. He began his career writing radio scripts for live dramas in the 1940s, later worked for the advertising agency Ted Bates Worldwide and was a nighttime programming director at NBC. At various times, he headed corporate underwriting departments for PBS stations in New York, Boston and Pittsburgh.