Born Benedict Gimbel III to a Jewish family in Philadelphia, the son of Ethel S. (née Nathanson) and Benedict Gimbel Jr. and the great-grandson of Adam Gimbel of the Gimbel Brothers retailing family.[1][2] His father was the president and general manager of WIP, one of the first radio stations in Philadelphia.[3][4] He changed his name to Edward Nathanson (the surname of his mother) after his parents divorced.[1] (His father remarried in 1931 to actress Sally Phipps although they divorced in 1935).[5] During World War II, he volunteered for the American Field Service as an ambulance driver in Europe for Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery's Eighth Army.[1] After the war, he worked for CBS, ABC and then NBC where he directed the original Tonight Show and the Today Show.[2]
He then became the coordinating producer of football and tennis for NBC Sports, where he directed 13 consecutive Super Bowls, 21 consecutive Wimbledon tennis championships,[1] the 1972 Winter Olympics, and the 1988 Summer Olympics.[2] He also directed a wide variety of television shows including game shows, political conventions, and sporting events including major league baseball, boxing, college football, hockey, and golf.[1] He was one of the first to utilize hand-held and remote-controlled cameras.[1] He remained at NBC for 37 years.[1]
He was the first person to receive the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award for sports-related broadcasting.[1]