Daniel Alan Booth, 53, Cornell's assistant director for television services and director of Cornell Information Technology's Educational Television Center, died unexpectedly Aug. 29 at Cayuga Medical Center. He is survived by his wife of 29 years, Robin; his son, Douglas, 26; and daughter Nola, 14, of Ithaca, N.Y.

Booth was an avid student of the performing arts and a prolific creative artist who excelled as a singer, actor, director, writer, designer and producer with an encyclopedic knowledge of musical theater and film.

Born Feb. 11, 1953, in Hollywood, Calif., Booth grew up in New Castle, Penn. He attended Slippery Rock University in western Pennsylvania where he majored in communications and theater.

Booth produced and directed the first of many independent films at age 18. In 1980 he joined Cornell's Department of Media Services as a senior producer and director. During his Cornell career, he produced several notable video productions and broadcasts, among them a multicamera recording of Cornell's production of "Antigone" for PBS broadcast in 2003; a program built around Professor David Feldshuh's Pulitzer-nominated play, "Susceptible to Kindness: Miss Evers' Boys and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study," which won the CINE Golden Eagle, Best in Category Award at the International Health/Medical Film Festival; and "Chinese Figures," a documentary about the Cornell-China-Oxford Project on Nutrition.

Booth made his local stage debut in 1986 with featured roles in the Ithaca Opera production of "A Little Night Music" and in "The Sorcerer" with the Cornell Savoyards. Over the years he also performed with the Hangar Theatre, Theatre Cornell, the Firehouse Theatre and the Brooktondale Barn Show. He was the author of numerous plays, screenplays and musical works, both original and based on classics. He wrote, produced and directed an original adaptation of "Dracula," produced with the Troika Association and performed at Cornell in 2002, and produced, directed and appeared in "The Mikado" in 2004.

An innovator in video and film, Booth invented a DVD-based true 3-D widescreen video production and desktop viewing system and was the named inventor of TELERAMA, a widescreen/mosaic special venue format laserdisc-based system controlled by a PC program.

A service in celebration of Booth's life was held Sept. 2 at St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Ithaca. Gifts in Booth's memory can be made to the Thanksgiving and Memorial Fund at St. Luke's Lutheran Church.