LOS ANGELES - Harry Harris, the Emmy Award-winning television director whose expansive credits include episodes of "Fame," "7th Heaven" and "Bonanza," died March 19. He was 86.

Harris died at his Los Angeles home of complications from the blood disorder myelodysplasia, said his stepson Michael Daruty, NBC Universal's senior vice president of technical operations.

Harris won an Emmy in 1982 for directing an episode of the drama series "Fame." He was nominated for the directing award in 1974 for an episode of "The Waltons."

Born in Kansas City in 1922, Harris moved to Los Angeles in 1937 and began his Hollywood career in the mailroom at Columbia Studios, then worked his way up to sound effects, Daruty said.

After enlisting in the U.S. Army during World War II, Harris was singled out by the military because of his film background and was hired by Ronald Reagan at Culver City's Hal Roach Studios as a sound effects editor on combat and training films, Daruty said.

After the Army, Harris went back to Columbia, and then left to eventually become an editor at Desi Arnaz' Desilu Productions. Arnaz gave Harris his first directing gig with the TV series "The Texan," starring Rory Calhoun.

Harris went on to direct hundreds of TV episodes, from Steve McQueen in the western series "Wanted _ Dead Or Alive" to "Rawhide," "Gunsmoke," "Lost in Space," "Hawaii Five-O" and "Falcon's Crest."