James Edward Hockridge was the First Assistant Director on Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. This was his first feature film credit, and he has since worked on twenty-five films and four made-for-television movies.
Television credits[]
Before Star Trek III, Hockridge was a First Assistant Director (1st AD) on Charlie's Angels and T. J. Hooker, the latter of which starred William Shatner, James Darren, and Richard Herd. Among the directors Hockridge worked with on both Charlie's Angels and T. J. Hooker were Corey Allen, Cliff Bole and Kim Manners.
Ken Stringer worked under Hockridge as Second Assistant Director (2nd AD) on T. J. Hooker and did the same on Star Trek III. Hockridge and Stringer then collaborated on The Jesse Owens Story (1984, with LeVar Burton, Ronny Cox, James B. Sikking, Victor Tayback, John Vargas and Ben Vereen). Babu Subramaniam, a 1st AD on Star Trek: The Next Generation, was Hockridge's 2nd AD on the 1987 science fiction TV movie The Man Who Fell to Earth, in which Bruce McGill, Robert Picardo, and Wil Wheaton had supporting roles.
Hockridge next served as the 1st AD on Beauty and the Beast, starring Linda Hamilton and Star Trek Nemesis actor Ron Perlman. At least one of Hockridge's episodes was directed by Victor Lobl. Some of the actors to appear in Hockridge's episodes include James Avery, Zachary Benjamin, Daniel Benzali, Raye Birk, Katy Boyer, Joseph Campanella, David Clennon, Mimi Craven, Cory Danziger, Tony Epper, Ellen Geer, Stan Ivar, Scott Jaeck, Tony Jay, Kay E. Kuter, Christopher Neame, Nicholas Shaffer, Armin Shimerman and Philip N. Waller.
After nearly a decade of working solely on features, Hockridge returned to television production with NBC's Mutiny (1999). He then worked as the 1st AD on They Nest (2000, co-starring John Savage and Dean Stockwell).
Film credits[]
Since 1989, Hockridge has worked almost exclusively as a 1st AD on feature films. Including Star Trek III, all but one one of his films between 1984 and 1995 were produced by Paramount Pictures. His first film production after Star Trek III was Ghost (1990, featuring Whoopi Goldberg and Vincent Schiavelli). Soon thereafter, he worked on Soapdish (1991), which also co-starred Whoop Goldberg as well as Teri Hatcher. Hockridge then worked on Scott Bakula Necessary Roughness (1991), followed by Wayne's World (1992) and Sliver (1993). On the latter, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country assistant director Christopher T. Gerrity was also a 1st AD.
Hockridge's only non-Paramount film during the early 1990s was Dennis the Menace (1993), for which he was the 1st AD for the film's Second Unit. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier stuntman Freddie Hice was the Second Unit Director, while Richard Oswald was the second assistant director for the film's main unit. The cast of Dennis the Menace included Christopher Lloyd and Paul Winfield; the music was composed by Jerry Goldsmith.
Hockridge has worked as the 1st AD on nearly all of comedy director Peter Segal's films, beginning with Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994, featuring Marc Alaimo, Earl Boen, Raye Birk, Bill Erwin, Matt Roe, and Bill Zuckert). Hockridge has since collaborated with Segal on Tommy Boy (1995, co-starring Zach Grenier and Julie Warner), My Fellow Americans (1996, featuring Ann Cusack, Jack Kehler, Tom Wright, and Jeff Yagher), Anger Management (2003), 50 First Dates (2004, with Amy Hill and Missi Pyle), The Longest Yard (2005, featuring James Cromwell and Ed Lauter), and Get Smart (2008, starring The Rock). Matthew D. Smith was an Additional 2nd AD on Anger Management (2003), 50 First Dates (2004), and The Longest Yard (2005).
Hockridge's other film credits include Nick of Time (1995, featuring Bill Smitrovich), Fled (1996, featuring Robert Hooks and Ken Jenkins), Red Corner (1997, featuring Tzi Ma), Black Dog (1998, featuring Cyril O'Reilly and Brenda Strong), The Mod Squad (1999, featuring Holmes R. Osborne and Dey Young), and Rat Race (2001, starring Lanei Chapman and Whoopi Goldberg, with Additional 2nd AD Matthew D. Smith).