never did a major movie...

The Hospital, Hardcore, and The Changeling are pretty well regarded, aren't they? Unfortunately he did make a lot of "major movies" that didn't turn out so major in the end (Day of the Dolphin, Oklahoma Crude, and The Hindenburg come to mind).

As well as those mentioned above... Islands in the Stream, The Formula, Taps, Exorcist III, Malice... they my not have been box office successes, they may not even have been any good but they were not b-movies, they all had cinema releases. He worked steadily in reasonably high-profile films until the end, with some TV work thrown in.

12 Angry Men and The Exorcist 3 are big movies.