Gurnee was born in New York City on January 25, 1925.[1] He directed the NBC daytime program The David Letterman Show, then moved with Letterman to Late Night with David Letterman in 1982. By his own account, Gurnee (then in his late 50s) was preparing to retire when Letterman approached him to direct his show; Gurnee stayed with Letterman for 15 years. Gurnee himself would often be heard or appear on the show, when Letterman would call on him in the control room to facilitate a comedy segment. When introducing him, Letterman would deliberately stumble over and mispronounce his last name (e.g., "Hal Gurtner...Gurnter"), or confuse him with Dan Gurney (e.g. "Hal... our Emmy award winning director and legendary race car driver").
When Letterman moved to CBS in 1993, Gurnee moved with him to direct the Late Show with David Letterman, and was also supervising producer from 1993 to 1995. He retired from the Late Show in 1995, but still took occasional directing assignments elsewhere.
