Worst Directors
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Widely known for his frequent collaborations with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a creative partnership which lasted 10 years and produced over 20 films, Ulli Lommel is one of the most consistently creative filmmakers to come from the New German Cinema movement.
The son of German comic performer Ludwig Manfred Lommel, Ulli Lommel began his career in show business as a child. His second feature film as a director Tenderness of the Wolves (1973) brought Lommel to New York, where he began working with Andy Warhol at The Factory. The Warhol / Lommel years spawned several features, including Cocaine Cowboys (1979) and Blank Generation (1980), both of which were directed by Lommel and feature Warhol in an acting role.
In the summer of 2013 Lommel went for nine months to Brazil, where he wrote a book and also made a film about Campo Bahia, the official camp for the German National Soccer Team. His autobiography, entitled Tenderness of the Wolves, is due out in late 2015.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
As a youth, he produced a number of short films on Super 8 and video. After short stints as guest auditor at Filmacademy Vienna and Filmhochschule Munich, Boll studied literature and economics in Cologne and Siegen. He graduated from university in 1995 with a doctorate in literature. From 1995-2000, he was a producer and director with Taunus Film-Produktions GmbH. Boll was Chief Executive Officer of Bolu Filmproduction and Distribution GmbH which he founded in 1992. He continued to direct, write and produce feature films until 2016. His main companies are Event Films in Vancouver and Bolu Film in Germany. A longtime resident of Canada, Boll owned the restaurant "Bauhaus" in Vancouver from 2015 to 2020. Returned to Germany and resumed filming in 2020.- Writer
- Director
- Producer
James Nguyen is director & creator of the successful film franchise, BIRDEMIC. Currently, he is directing SEA RISING - Mavericks. James has been in the movie business for over 20 years. His films are influenced by Hitchcock's cinema & they are often about the harms of climate change (Climate Fix, Birdemic - Shock & Terror, Birdemic - Sea Eagle, Sea Rising - Mavericks, Cosmic Beauty).- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Jason Friedberg was born on 16 January 1970 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Disaster Movie (2008), Epic Movie (2007) and Meet the Spartans (2008).- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Aaron Seltzer was born on 12 January 1974 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. He is a writer and director, known for Disaster Movie (2008), Date Movie (2006) and Epic Movie (2007).- Director
- Producer
A dual citizen of Canada and the USA, David DeCoteau has worked professionally in the movie business since he was 18 years old. He got his start through a generous offer from movie legend Roger Corman, who hired him in 1980 as a production assistant at New World Pictures. In 1986, DeCoteau directed and produced his first feature film for another generous film legend, Charles Band. DeCoteau has gone on to produce and direct more than 170 motion pictures over the past forty years. His passion lies in the creation of popular genre programming made for world consumption. DeCoteau's experience in creating content in countries all over the world makes him a proven choice for exceptionally challenging movie projects. He resides in British Columbia, Canada and Hollywood, California.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Paul W.S. Anderson gained a fair bit of notoriety in his native England when he directed the ultra-violent Shopping (1994) (which he also wrote), starring Jude Law and Sean Pertwee in a story about thieves who steal by ramming a car into storefronts. The film was banned in some cinemas in England, and became a direct-to-video slightly edited release in the United States.
Shopping (1994) allowed Anderson to get the chance to direct Mortal Kombat (1995), an adaptation of the hit video game, which showcased his directorial trademarks - visually stunning scenery and quick-cut editing. The film did well enough for him to choose his next project, which was Soldier (1998) with Warner Bros., with Kurt Russell in the lead. Unfortunately, Russell decided at the time to go on hiatus, pushing the release date of that film into 1998. In the meantime, Anderson directed Event Horizon (1997) from a script by Philip Eisner, which featured Anderson regulars Sean Pertwee and Jason Isaacs. The science fiction/horror film, a Gothic horror version of Solaris (1972), was stylish and scary, but was critically panned and did not do well in the box office, which Anderson blamed on studio-enforced cuts to the story. (Anderson has promised a Director's Cut, though none has been announced as of yet).
Soldier (1998) didn't fare well with critics and box office either, and Anderson's planned 2000 remake of Death Race 2000 (1975) was canceled. This forced him to think smaller, which led to The Sight (2000), a supernatural mystery movie that was a minor hit. He then resurfaced to direct another video game adaption, Resident Evil (2002). Long rumored among fans to be a choice comeback vehicle for zombie grandfather George A. Romero, the writing and directing credits eventually transferred to Anderson. He next was given the helm for the long-awaited film adaption of the popular Dark Horse comic book, Alien vs. Predator (2004).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Fred Olen Ray spent most of his childhood in Florida, where he was always a fan of horror movies on TV. He collected autographs of many of the actors in those films where he met Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. His early career was filled with low-budget horror and science-fiction films, but the market eventually dried up and he switched to producing softcore "T&A" videos of the type shown late at night on Showtime and Cinemax. His films rarely cost more than $500,000, and he has written under at least 30 different pen names; he was one of the first to fill time at the end of his films with outtakes, now a common practice in other comedy films. The outdoor sets are often CGI backdrops and many sets are in his own home or near it. Ray often can share credit for his softcore film success with the late cinematographer/director Gary Graver, big shoes for him to fill while working with an excess of tattooed and body-beaded new performers in this genre.- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Tommy Wiseau is an American actor, director, screenwriter & producer. He trained to be an actor at: American Conservatory Theater, Vince Chase Workshop, Jean Shelton Acting Lab, Laney College and Stella Adler Academy of Acting.
In 2001 he wrote, produced, directed and starred in The Room (2003), a feature film that received the 2003 Audience Award at the New York International Film Festival. In 2004, he produced the documentary Homeless in America (2004), which received the 2004 Social Award.
He is now working on several more projects.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
A 25-year veteran in the Hollywood exploitation field, writer/producer/director Jim Wynorski is responsible for over 150 varied motion pictures in a myriad of genres. Leaving behind a successful commercial business in New York, Wynorski relocated to California in 1980 and soon found himself on the doorstep of his childhood idol, B-film king Roger Corman. "The rest was destiny," recounts Wynorski, who soon found himself hired by the renowned movie mogul to cut "coming attractions" for all of the company's new action and horror films. "It was like grasshopper learning from the kung-fu master," says Wynorski, who claims his six-months internship with Corman taught him more than four years at film school.
"It wasn't long after that Corman offered me the first of many writing/directing assignments. Some distributor wanted a flick about a killer in a shopping mall," recalls Wynorski, "and Roger trusted me enough to say 'come up with something good, and you can direct it." Well, a couple days later, the director walked in with the first treatment to a film called Chopping Mall (1986), and the rest was history. From then on, Jim Wynorski turned out an average of three to five films a year as a director, and even more as a producer/writer. Throughout the 1980s came a steady stream of wild exploitation titles like Big Bad Mama II (1987) with Angie Dickinson, Not of This Earth (1988) with Traci Lords and The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) with Heather Locklear. On into the 1990s, Wynorski continued to climb to the top of the B-Film mountain with flicks like Hard Bounty (1995) starring Kelly LeBrock, Point of Seduction: Body Chemistry III (1994) & Body Chemistry 4: Full Exposure (1995) with Shannon Tweed and Morgan Fairchild and Munchie (1992), which featured the first film appearance of the then-unknown 12-year-old child actress Jennifer Love Hewitt.
As the years peeled by and tastes changed, Jim Wynorski kept hip by innovating new special effects techniques that landed the director no less than seven world premieres on the Sci-Fi Channel. His credits there include films like Gargoyle (2004), The Curse of the Komodo (2004), Project Viper and Cry of the Winged Serpent (2007).
As for the future, the 59-year-old Wynorski feels the audience for alternative cinema made away from the studio system will continue to grow thanks to new advances in Internet and Cable technologies. In fact, he is in post-production on another thriller, Vampire in Vegas (2009). "And you can bet I'll be there," he offers with a big smile, "with some really fun stuff." Jim has a huge following in the MidWest and is beloved in Franklin, Indiana, Home of The B Movie Celebration.- Writer
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- Producer
Perry was born and raised in New Orleans, to Willie Maxine (Campbell) and Emmitt Perry, Sr. His mother was a church-goer and took Perry along with her once a week. His father was a carpenter and they had a very strained and abusive relationship, which led Perry to suffer from depression as a teenager.
In 1991, he was working an office job, when he saw an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986) discussing the therapeutic nature of writing. This inspired him to begin writing and he worked through his bad experiences by writing letters to himself. He adapted his letters into a play, "I Know I've Changed", about domestic abuse. Unfortunately, after renting a theater in Atlanta to put on the play, he failed to attract audiences.
He took on a series of odd jobs and found himself living in his car. But, in 1998, he was given a second chance to stage his play and, this time, he was more business-savvy with his marketing. The play was sold-out and drew attention from investors.
Tyler has gone on to established a successful career as a writer, director and producer for stage, television and film.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Hacks are nothing new in Hollywood. Since the beginning of the film industry at the turn of the 20th century, thousands of untalented people have come to Los Angeles from all over America and abroad to try to make it big (as writers, producers, directors, actors, talent agents, singers, composers, musicians, artists, etc.) but who end up using, scamming and exploiting other people for money as well as using their creative ability (either self-taught or professional training), leading to the production of dull, bland, mediocre, unimaginative, inferior, trite work in the forlorn hope of attaining commercial success. Had Edward D. Wood, Jr. been born a decade or two earlier, it's easy to imagine him working for some Poverty Row outfit in Gower Gulch, competing with the likes of no-talent and no-taste producers and directors--such as Victor Adamson, Robert J. Horner and Dwain Esper--for the title of all-time hack. He would have fit in nicely working at Weiss Brothers-Artclass Pictures in the early 1930s in directing low budget Western-themed serials, or directing low budget film noir crime drama features at PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation) in the following decade from 1940 to 1946. Ed Wood is the probably the most well known of all the Hollywood hacks because he is imprisoned in his own time, and in the 1950s, Ed Wood simply had no competition. He was ignored throughout his spectacularly unsuccessful film making career and died a penniless alcoholic, only to be "rediscovered" when promoters in the early 1980s tagged him "The Worst Director of All Time" (mostly thanks to the Medveds' hilarious book, "Golden Turkey Awards") and he was given the singular honor of a full-length biopic by Tim Burton (Ed Wood (1994)). This post-mortem celebrity has made him infinitely more famous today than he ever was during his lifetime.
Wood was an exceedingly complex person. He was born on October 10, 1924, in Poughkeepsie, NY, where he lived most of his childhood. He joined the US Marine Corps in 1943 at the height of World War II and was, by all accounts, an exemplary marine, wounded in ferocious combat in the Pacific theater (a transgender, he claimed to have been wearing a bra and panties under his uniform while storming ashore during the bloody beachhead landing at Tarawa in November 1943). He was habitually optimistic, even in the face of the bleak realities that would later consume him. His personality bonded him with a small clique of outcasts who eked out life on the far edges of the Hollywood fringe.
After settling in Los Angeles in the late 1940s, Wood attempted to break into the film industry, initially without success, but in 1952 he landed the chance to direct a film based on the real-life Christine Jorgensen sex-change story, then a hot topic. The result, Glen or Glenda (1953), gave a fascinating insight into Wood's own personality and shed light on his transgender identity (an almost unthinkable subject for an early 1950s mainstream feature). Although devoutly heterosexual, Wood was an enthusiastic cross-dresser, with a particular fondness for angora. On the debit side, though, the film revealed the almost complete lack of talent that would mar all his subsequent films, his tendency to resort to stock footage of lightning during dramatic moments, laughable set design and a near-incomprehensible performance by Bela Lugosi as a mad doctor whose presence is never adequately explained. The film deservedly flopped miserably but Wood, always upbeat, pressed ahead.
Wood's main problem was that he saw himself as a producer-writer-director, when in fact he was spectacularly incompetent in all three capacities. Friends who knew Wood have described him as an eccentric, oddball hack who was far more interested in the work required in cobbling a film project together than in ever learning the craft of film making itself or in any type of realism. In an alternate universe, Wood might have been a competent producer if he had better industry connections and an even remotely competent director. Wood, however, likened himself to his idol, Orson Welles, and became a triple threat: bad producer, poor screenwriter and God-awful director. All of his films exhibit illogical continuity, bizarre narratives and give the distinct impression that a director's job was simply to expose the least amount of film possible due to crushing budget constraints. His magnum opus, Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957), features visible wires connected to pie-pan UFOs, actors knocking over cardboard "headstones", cars changing models and years during chase sequences, scenes exhibiting a disturbing lack of handgun safety and the ingenious use of shower curtains in airplane cockpits that have virtually no equipment are just a few of the trademarks of that Edward D. Wood Jr. production. When criticized for their innumerable flaws, Wood would cheerfully explain his interpretation of the suspension of disbelief. It's not so much that he made movies so badly without regard to realism--the amazing part is that he managed to get them made at all.
His previous film with Lugosi, Bride of the Monster (1955), was no better (unbelievably, it somehow managed to earn a small profit during its original release, undoubtedly more of a testament to how cheaply it was produced than its value as entertainment), and Wood only shot a few seconds of silent footage of Lugosi (doped and dazed, wandering around the front yard of his house) for "Plan 9" before the actor died in August 1956. What few reviews the film received were brutal. Typically undaunted, Wood soldiered on despite incoherent material and a microscopic budget, peopling it with his regular band of mostly inept actors. Given the level of dialog, budget and Wood's dismal directorial abilities, it's unlikely that better actors would have made much of a difference (lead actor Gregory Walcott made his debut in this film and went on to have a very respectable career as a character actor, but was always embarrassed by his participation in this film)--in fact, it's the film's semi-official status as arguably the Worst Film Ever Made that gives it its substantial cult following. The film, financed by a local Baptist congregation led by Wood's landlord, reaches a plateau of ineptitude that tends to leave viewers open-mouthed, wondering what is it they just saw. "Plan 9" became, whether Wood realized it or not, his singular enduring legacy. Ironically, the rights to the film were retained by the church and it is unlikely that Wood ever received a dime from it; his epic bombed upon release in 1959 and remained largely forgotten for years to come.
After this career "peak," Wood went into, relatively speaking, a decline. Always an "enthusiastic"--for lack of a better word--drinker, his alcohol addiction worsened in the 1960s due to his depression of not achieving the worldwide fame he had always sought. He began to draw away from film directing and focused most of his time on another profession: writing. Beginning in the early 1960s up until his death, Wood wrote at least 80 lurid crime and sex paperback novels in addition to hundreds of short stories and non-fiction pieces for magazines and daily newspapers. Thirty-two stories known to be written by Wood (he sometimes wrote under pseudonyms such as "Ann Gora" and "Dr. T.K. Peters") are collected in 'Blood Splatters Quickly', published by OR Books in 2014. Novels include Black Lace Drag (1963) (reissued in 1965 as Killer in Drag), Orgy of the Dead (1965), Devil Girls (1967), Death of a Transvestite (1967), The Sexecutives (1968), The Photographer (1969), Take It Out in Trade (1970), The Only House in Town (1970), Necromania (1971), The Undergraduate (1972), A Study of Fetishes and Fantasies (1973) and Fugitive Girls (1974).
In 1965, Wood wrote the quasi-memoir 'Hollywood Rat Race', which was eventually published in 1998. In it, Wood advises new writers to "just keep on writing. Even if your story gets worse, you'll get better", and also recounts tales of dubious authenticity, such as how he and Bela Lugosi entered the world of nightclub cabaret.
In the 1970s, Wood directed a number of undistinguished softcore and later hardcore adult porno films under various aliases, one of which is the name "Akdov Telmig" ("vodka gimlet" spelled backwards; it helps to imagine that you're a boozy dyslexic, as Ed Wood was). His final years were spent largely drunk in his apartment and occasionally being rolled stumbling out of a local liquor store. Three days before his death, Wood and his wife Kathy were evicted from their Hollywood apartment due to failure to pay the rent and moved into a friend's apartment shortly before his death on the afternoon of December 10, 1978, at age 54. He had a heart attack and died while drinking in bed.
Due to his recent resurgence in popularity, many of his equally interesting transgender - themed sex novels have been republished. The gravitational pull of Planet Angora remains quite strong.- Producer
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- Actor
A graduate of Wesleyan University, Michael Bay spent his 20s working on advertisements and music videos. His first projects after film school were in the music video business. He created music videos for Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, Lionel Richie, Wilson Phillips, Donny Osmond and Divinyls. His work won him recognition and a number of MTV award nominations. He also filmed advertisements for Nike, Reebok, Coca-Cola, Budweiser and Miller Lite. He won the Grand Prix Clio for Commercial of the Year for his "Got Milk/Aaron Burr" commercial. At Cannes, he has won the Gold Lion for The Best Beer campaign for Miller Lite, as well as the Silver for "Got Milk". In 1995, Bay was honored by the Directors Guild of America as Commercial Director of the Year. That same year, he also directed his first feature film, Bad Boys (1995), starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, which grossed more than $160 million, worldwide. His follow-up film, The Rock (1996), starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, was also hugely successful, making Bay the director du jour.- Producer
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- Writer
Born in Puducherry, India, and raised in the posh suburban Penn Valley area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, M. Night Shyamalan is a film director, screenwriter, producer, and occasional actor, known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots.
He is the son of Jayalakshmi, a Tamil obstetrician and gynecologist, and Nelliate C. Shyamalan, a Malayali doctor. His passion for filmmaking began when he was given a Super-8 camera at age eight, and even at that young age began to model his career on that of his idol, Steven Spielberg. His first film, Praying with Anger (1992), was based somewhat on his own trip back to visit the India of his birth. He raised all the funds for this project, in addition to directing, producing and starring in it. Wide Awake (1998), his second film, he wrote and directed, and shot it in the Philadelphia-area Catholic school he once attended--even though his family was of a different religion, they sent him to that school because of its strict discipline.
Shyamalan gained international recognition when he wrote and directed 1999's The Sixth Sense (1999), which was a commercial success and later nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Shyamalan team up again with Bruce Willis in the film Unbreakable (2000), released in 2000, which he also wrote and directed.
His major films include the science fiction thriller Signs (2002), the psychological thriller The Village (2004), the fantasy thriller Lady in the Water (2006), The Happening (2008), The Last Airbender (2010), After Earth (2013), and the horror films The Visit (2015) and Split (2016).- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Godfrey Ho was born in 1948 in Hong Kong. He is a director and writer, known for The Ninja Squad (1986), Thunder of Gigantic Serpent (1988) and Challenge of the Ninja (1986).- Director
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- Producer
Anthony C. Ferrante was born in Antioch, California, USA. He is a director and writer, known for Sharknado (2013), Nix (2022) and Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch (2023).- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Timothy Kevin Story was born on March 13, 1970 in Los Angeles, California. Attended Westchester High School in Los Angeles, California with jazz pianist Eric Reed and actresses Regina King and Nia Long. Graduated from USC film school.- Writer
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- Director
Roland Emmerich is a German film director and producer of blockbuster films like The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Godzilla (1998), Independence Day (1996) and The Patriot (2000). Before fame, he originally wanted to be a production designer, but decided to be a director, after watching the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Emmerich began his career in his native Germany. In his youth, he pursued painting and sculpting. While enrolled in the director's program at film school in Munich, his student film The Noah's Ark Principle (1984) went on to open the 1984 Berlin Film Festival. The feature became a huge success and was sold to more than 20 countries. In an amazing trivia, he directed his first feature, The Noah's Ark Principle (1984), in 1984. He is openly gay and a campaigner for the LGBT community.
A director/writer/producer with a flair for special effects-driven action, German Roland Emmerich made himself at home in blockbuster-hungry 1990s Hollywood. Born and educated in West Germany, Emmerich studied production design as well as direction at the Munich Film and Television School. After his student film, The Noah's Ark Principle, debuted at the 1984 Berlin Film Festival, Emmerich formed his production company Centropolis and directed supernatural fantasies Making Contact (1986) and Ghost Chase (1987), and the straight-to-video action film Moon 44 (1990). On the latter, he met actor Dean Devlin who subsequently switched jobs to become Emmerich's writing and producing partner once Emmerich set up shop in Hollywood.
After making his solo Hollywood debut directing Jean-Claude Van Damme in the cyborg action fest Universal Soldier (1992), Emmerich and Devlin revealed a talent for conjuring A-level action spectacles out of B-movie scenarios with their first film together, Stargate (1994). A space odyssey mixing ancient Egyptiana and high-tech wizardry, Stargate became an unexpected hit. Emmerich hit his blockbuster stride with his next film, Independence Day (1996). With its eye-popping destruction of major cities and climactic annihilation of a spacecraft via portable computer, Independence Day blew away its summer movie competition on the strength of its visual flash. Geared to repeat with the endlessly- and creatively-hyped version of Godzilla (1998), Emmerich instead faced the conundrum of directing a $100 million grossing film that did not live up to box office expectations. Emmerich and Devlin next turned their epic visions to the decidedly lower-tech (but still CGI-enhanced) action of the American Revolution in the Mel Gibson summer vehicle The Patriot (2000).- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Stephen Sommers was born on March 20, 1962 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Raised in St. Cloud, Minnesota, he attended St. John's University and the University of Seville in Spain. Afterward, Sommers spent the next four years performing as an actor in theater groups and managing rock bands throughout Europe.
From there, he relocated to Los Angeles and attended the USC School of Cinema-Television for three years, earning a Masters Degree, where he wrote and directed an award winning short film called "Perfect Alibi". With independent funding, he wrote and directed his first motion picture Catch Me If You Can (1989) which was filmed on location in his hometown St. Cloud, Minnesota. Sommers then went on to write and direct The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993) as well as the latest version of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994) both for Walt Disney Pictures. Sommers also wrote the screenplays for the grade-B action flick Gunmen (1993) and the Disney adventure Tom and Huck (1995) which he also executive produced. He also wrote and directed the suspense-thriller Deep Rising (1998), and the latest version of The Mummy (1999). For television, Sommers wrote and executive produced Oliver Twist (1997) for director Tony Bill.
Most recently, he wrote and directed the sequel to The Mummy (1999), titled The Mummy Returns (2001), as well as the horror-thriller-action epic Van Helsing (2004), and the live-action adaptation G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009).- Director
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- Producer
Joel Schumacher was an American film director, film producer, screenwriter and fashion designer from New York City. He rose to fame in the 1980s for directing the coming-of-age drama "St. Elmo's Fire" (1985), and the vampire-themed horror film "The Lost Boys" (1987). In the 1990s, he worked on two controversial superhero films "Batman Forever" (1995) and "Batman & Robin" (1997). His final high-profile film was "The Phantom of the Opera" (2004). It was an adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical, rather than the original novel. Towards the end of his career, Schumacher primarily worked on low-profile films with small budgets.- Producer
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- Additional Crew
Raised on the back-streets of Jersey, Tom's award-winning fiction helped earn him a scholarship to Harvard College. Arriving in Cambridge, he landed a lead acting role opposite Amy Brenneman where they stripped naked and smeared ice cream and sprinkles on each other - and Tom knew a career in show business was his destiny. At Harvard, Brady acted in and directed dozens of theater productions, studied under Joe Chaikin, Sam Shepard, and David Mamet - and began writing his own plays and screenplays. Tom continued on to the University of Hawaii where he earned an MFA in Directing (and a minor in big waves). In the islands, Tom directed professionally, continued to write and direct his own original work, and landed a featured role in the CBS Viet Nam drama "Tour Of Duty." Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Tom worked as Assistant Director at the Mark Taper Forum's Mainstage and New Work Festival, directed at playhouses around Hollywood, and co-directed a very gratifying national tour showcasing the talents of children with disabilities and from impoverished backgrounds. As a writer, Brady was discovered by Al Jean & Mike Reiss at "The Simpsons", and went on to write and produce television shows such as The Critic (1994), The Simpsons (1989), Home Improvement (1991), Men Behaving Badly (1996), Sports Night (1998), Good Vibes (2011), and FX's Chozen (2014). Expanding his work to feature films, Tom's credits as a writer and/or director include The Animal (2001), The Hot Chick (2002), The Comebacks (2007), and Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star (2011) written by Adam Sandler and Nick Swardson. Tom also Executive Produced the award-winning documentary, Mr. Fish: Cartooning from the Deep End (2017) the romantic thriller Frank and Penelope (2022). Most recently, Tom produced the American period piece, Long Shadows for Tiki Tane Pictures.- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Mark Steven Johnson is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is known for writing and directing the hit Marvel films "Daredevil" and "Ghost Rider" as well as writing "Grumpy Old Men" and its successful sequel "Grumpier Old Men." Johnson recently wrote, directed and produced "Love in the Villa" for Netflix.- Producer
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- Director
Jon is an alumni of the USC School of Cinema-Television. There, he won the Princess Grace Award, the Dore Schary Award presented by the Anti-Defamation league, the Jack Nicholson directing award, and recognized as an honoree for the IFP/West program Project: Involve.
After making his student short, "When the Kids Are Away", Jon was scooped up by the William Morris Agency and attached to several high profile projects.- Visual Effects
- Producer
- Director
Pitof started his career in 1976 as photographer, assistant director and editor for films and commercials. He then branched out into musical scoring, software design and graphic design for televisions, music videos and commercials.
A pioneer of digital imaging in France, Pitof made his debut in visual effect in 1986. Co-founder of Duran Duboi the digital postproduction company leader in France, Pitof worked on commercials, videos and feature films for recognized directors such as Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Lars Von Trier, Wim Wenders, Bertrant Travernier, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Jean-Paul Goude, Alain Chabat , Luc Besson...
Pitof then achieved the first French software for digital visual effects used in feature films.
In 1994, Pitof won the Technical Grand Prize for visual effects at the Cannes Film Festival for his work in "Dead Tired".
In 1995, the Minister of Culture in France honored him with the Medal of Arts and Letters.
Pitof went on to direct commercials and short films, most notably " A Tribute to Jessie Owens and Carl Lewis", for which he won the Gold Podium medal at MIFED in 1996 and the Gold Teapot medal at Imagina in 1996.
In 1997, Pitof took on the role of second unit director for Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Alien: Resurrection", and consequently won second prize for visual effects at Imagina that year. It was Pitof's third collaboration with Jeunet after working together on the Jeunet-Caro films "Delicatessen" and "City of Lost Children".
In the meantime the immense success of Duran Duboi brought the company on the stock market in Paris.
In September 2001, "Vidocq", starring Gerard Depardieu and Guillaume Canet, premiered in France. It was Pitof's feature film directorial debut.
"Vidocq" was the first feature film ever made in High Definition. The film was an international commercial success and garnered many awards including five honors: The Citizen Kane Award, Best Film, Best Director, Best Visual Effects, Best Music, and Best Makeup from the Catalonian International Film Festival in Sitges, Spain.
Pitof makes his Hollywood debut in 2003, directing "Catwoman" for Warner Brothers, starring Halle Berry and Sharon Stone.
While developing and shooting projects with major producers in Hollywood, in 2008 Pitof is called in Beijing, China to help the development and the pre-production of an epic effect driven feature film.
Back in Hollywood Pitof has been developing various film projects and producing cutting edge commercials and music videos as well as developing Virtual Reality content.
Recently he co-produced 3 feature films in Los Angeles and produced a 10' by 10 episodes Mobile-Ready Series for Studio Plus, a French studio pioneer in the mobile content for Vivendi.
Decorations
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres 1995 One of the French highest cultural honors Awarded by the Minister of Culture
Awards
Kid's Choice Award (nominated) USA 2005 "Catwoman" dir. Pitof
CNOMA Award Best Make-Up Canada 2005 "Catwoman" dir. Pitof
World Stunt Award (nominated) USA 2005 "Catwoman" dir. Pitof
Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver Porto 2001 "Vidocq" dir. Pitof
International Fantasy Film Award Best Special Effects Porto 2001 "Vidocq" dir. Pitof
International Fantasy Film Award Best Film (nominated) Porto 2001 "Vidocq" dir. Pitof
Best Film Sitges 2001 "Vidocq" dir. Pitof
Citizen Kane Award to the Director Revelation Sitges 2001 "Vidocq" dir. Pitof
Best Visuals Effects Sitges 2001 "Vidocq" dir. Pitof
Best Make Up Effects Sitges 2001 "Vidocq" dir. Pitof
Best Banda Original Soundtrack Sitges 2001 "Vidocq" dir. Pitof
Achievement in Post Production Solutions Productions 1999 "Asterix & Obelix vs Ceasar " dir. Claude Zidi
Saturn Award (nominated) USA 1998 « Alien Resurrection » dir. Jean Pierre Jeunet
Best Visual Effects 2nd prize in Imagina 1997 « Alien Resurrection » dir. Jean Pierre Jeunet
Golden Teapot in Imagina 1996 « Homage to Jesse and Carl » dir. Pitof
Golden Prize in MIFED 1996 « Homage to Jesse and Carl » dir. Pitof
Master Of Visual Effects in Paris 1996 « Orangina the flipper » dir. Alain Chabat
Best Use Of Visual Effects - Spotitalia 1995 « Mulino Bianco » dir. Jean Paul Seaulieu
Technical Grand Prize in Cannes Festival 1994 « Dead tired » dir. Michel Blanc- Director
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John Whitesell was born on 2 December 1953 in Iowa Falls, Iowa, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Guiding Light (1952), Holidate (2020) and Deck the Halls (2006). He has been married to Jolie Barnett since July 1999. They have two children. He was previously married to Emily Whitesell.- Writer
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Willard Huyck was born on 8 September 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Howard the Duck (1986), American Graffiti (1973) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). He was previously married to Gloria Katz.- Producer
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Brian Robbins is President of Kids & Family Entertainment for ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks, with oversight of all strategy, creative and business operations for the company's kids and young-adult focused brands including Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., TeenNick, Nicktoons, Nickelodeon Studios and Awesomeness. He also has purview over The Nick Experience, Nickelodeon's experiential division which includes live shows, as well as Nick's domestic consumer products business.
Robbins most recently served as President of Nickelodeon, responsible for evolving the global brand leader in kids and family entertainment for a new generation of young audiences by enhancing its robust content offerings and expanding its cultural footprint on next-generation platforms and in film.
Prior to that, Robbins was President of Paramount Players, a production division of Paramount Pictures that develops, produces and markets feature films from original source material and in collaboration with Viacom flagship brands Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and BET.
Projects led by Robbins under the Paramount Players division include: Nobody's Fool, directed by Tyler Perry and starring Tiffany Haddish; What Men Want directed by Adam Shankman and starring Taraji P. Henson; the adaptation of Trevor Noah's autobiography Born a Crime; and film versions of classic Nickelodeon shows Rugrats and Dora the Explorer, among others.
Prior to establishing Paramount Players, Robbins founded multi-platform media company Awesomeness, which Viacom purchased in July 2018. As Founder & CEO, he drove all Awesomeness creative, producing hit web series and films Expelled, Guidance, Foursome, t@gged, and Freakish, as well as theatrical release Before I Fall.
A prolific producer of television, film and digital media, Robbins is best known for executive producing numerous popular and critical television hits aimed at teens and young audiences, including the long-running CW series Smallville and One Tree Hill; Nickelodeon's All That and Kenan and Kel; Disney Channel's Sonny With a Chance and So Random; and Spike TV's Blue Mountain State. He also produced the popular WB series What I Like About You and HBO's Arli$$.
In feature film, his director and producer credits include Paramount Pictures' Coach Carter, Hardball, Varsity Blues and Good Burger; Disney's Wild Hogs and Shaggy Dog; DreamWorks' A Thousand Words; and Sony's Radio, along with many other works.
Robbins is the recipient of a Directors Guild Award, a Peabody Award, and the Pioneer Prize by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He is based in Los Angeles, CA.- Writer
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He was only six years old when he started composing music under the protection of his brother Enrique. After the Spanish Civil War he was able to continue his studies at the Real Conservatorio de Madrid, where he finished piano and harmony. Being a Bachelor of Law and an easy-read novel writer (under the pseudonym David Khume), he signed on to enter the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográicas (IIEC), where he stayed for only two years, while he worked simultaneously as a director and theater actor. Later he went to Paris to study directing techniques at the I.D.H.E.C. (University of Sorbonne), where he used to go into seclusion for hours to watch films at the film archive. Back in Spain he began rted his huge cinematographic work as a composer, with Cómicos (1954) and El hombre que viajaba despacito (1957), and later worked as an assistant director to Juan Antonio Bardem, León Klimovsky, Luis Saslavsky, Julio Bracho, Fernando Soler and Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent, among others. He also worked at Ágata Films S.A. as production manager and writer. His first works as a director were industrial and cultural short films. However, he soon applied all his knowledge and experience to his feature directorial debut, Tenemos 18 años (1959). From that moment on all his work was supported by co-production. His Succubus (1968) was nominated for the Festival of Berlin, and this event gave him an international reputation. His career got more and more consolidated in the following years, and his endless creativity enabled him to tackle films in all genres, from "B" horror films to pure hardcore sex films. His productions have always been low-budget, but he nevertheless managed to work extraordinarily quickly, often releasing several titles at the same time, using the same shots in more than one film. Some of his actors relate how they they were hired for one film and later saw their name in two or more different ones. As the Spanish cinema evolved, Jesús managed to adapt to the new circumstances and always maintained a constant activity, activity that gave a place in his films to a whole filming crew. Apart from his own production company, Manacoa Films, he also worked for companies like Auster Films S.L. (Paul Auster), Cinematográfica Fénix Films (Arturo Marcos), the French Comptoir Français du Film (Robert de Nesle), Eurociné (Daniel Lesoeur and Marius Lesoeur), Elite Films Productions (Erwin C. Dietrich), Spain's Fervi Films (Fernando Vidal Campos) or Golden Films Internacional S.A. He acted in almost all of his films, playing musicians, lawyers, porters and others, all of them sinister, manic and comic characters. Among the aliases he used--apart from Jesús Franco, Jess Franco or Franco Manera--were Jess Frank, Robert Zimmerman, Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune, Frarik Hollman, Toni Falt, James P. Johnson, Charlie Christian, David Tough, Cady Coster, Lennie Hayden, Lulú Laverne and Betty Carter. Lina Romay has been almost a constant in his films, and it's very probable that in some of them she has been credited as the director instead of him. In many of the more than 180 films he's directed he has also worked as composer, writer, cinematographer and editor. His influence has been notable all over Europe (he even contacted producer Roger Corman in the US). From his huge body of work we can deduce that Jesús Franco is one of the most restless directors of Spanish cinema. Many of his films have had problems in getting released, and others have been made directly for video. His work is often a do-it-yourself effort. More than once his staunchest supporters have found his "new" films to contain much footage from one or more of his older ones. Jesús Franco is a survivor in a time when most of his colleagues tried to please the government censors. He broke with all that and got the independence he was seeking. He always went upstream in an ephemeral industry that fed opportunists and curbed the activity of many professionals. Jess Franco died in Malaga, Spain, on April 2, 2013, of a stroke.- Director
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Only one film-maker can claim the title "Godfather of Gore." That peculiar but apt identification seems to be the exclusive property of Herschell Gordon Lewis. With an unusual background that included teaching English Literature to college students, producing and directing television commercials, and voicing radio and television commercials, Herschell literally - and single-handedly - established the "Splatter Film" category of motion pictures. He accomplished this by writing and directing (including the musical score) a mini-budget movie titled "Blood Feast," shot in Miami in 1963 and released theatrically the following year. As critics lambasted the primitive effects and inattention to script and sub-par acting, audiences flocked to theaters to see why friends who had reacted to the movie's fiery marketing campaign had said, "You gotta see this." Armed with boxoffice grosses, Herschell and his producer-partner David Friedman quickly decided to build onto their newly-discovered base. Herschell wrote and directed "Two Thousand Maniacs." The lead singer of the musical group hired to perform background music had a tenor voice. Herschell had written the title song, "The South Gonna Rise Ag'in." He wanted a baritone, and without hesitation he made the switch: the voice on the sound track is his. After their third splatter film, "Color Me Blood Red," David Friedman moved to California, engaging in a different type of motio0n picture. Herschell continued to grind out one success after another, with titles such as "The Gruesome Twosome," "The Wizard of Gore," and "The Gore-Gore Girls." When major film companies began to invade his splatter-turf, Herschell took a hiatus, shifting full time to his "other career," writing advertising and mailings for marketers worldwide. He became one of a handful of experts to be inducted into the Direct Marketing Association's Hall of Fame. (Author of 32 books on marketing including the classic "On the Art of Writing Copy," Herschell is often called on to lecture on copywriting, just as he is invited to sing the theme from "Two Thousand Maniacs" at horror film festivals.) Over the years, an unusual reality came into place: Herschell's old films continued to play not just on TV screens but in theatres, years after conventional movies would have disappeared altogether. The result has been renewal of his life as a film director. Thus it is that a new Herschell Gordon Lewis movie is hoving into view: "Herschell Gordon Lewis's BloodMania," produced by James Saito in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and planned for 2015 release. Both the producer and the director encapsulate their opinion of "Herschell Gordon Lewis's BloodMania" in a single word: Enthusiastic.- Director
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Doris Wishman was born on 1 June 1912 in New York City, New York, USA. She was a director and producer, known for Satan Was a Lady (2001), Nude on the Moon (1961) and Keyholes Are for Peeping (1972). She was married to Louis Silverman and Jack Abrahms. She died on 10 August 2002 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Editor
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Born in 1931, Bruno Mattei grew up in Rome, Italy, where his father owned a small film editing studio. At age 20 Bruno started working odd jobs at his father's company as his assistant, then went on to other small spots. He wanted to follow in his father's footsteps as a film editor, and soon found himself working as an editor for a number of directors, including Roberto Bianchi Montero and Nick Nostro. Mattei claimed to have edited over 100 films in the 1960s and early 1970s. After working with famed Spanish director Jess Franco, Mattei made his debut as a director with the drama Armida, il dramma di una sposa (1970) under the alias "Jordon B. Matthews". He eventually had more pseudonyms than any working director in the world. He returned to editing before making another comeback in 1976 with two low-budget Nazi exploitation films, Women's Camp 119 (1977) (aka "Women's Camp 119") and Casa privata per le SS (1977) (aka "SS Girls"). Mattei followed these taboo-breaking films with excursions into porno films and mondo "shockumentaries", all directed under his many pseudonyms, concentrating on "shock value" with films such as Mondo erotico (1973), "Libiodomania" and "Libidomania 2". Always on the lookout for new exploitation avenues, Mattei followed with "nunsploitation", with the softcore sex film The True Story of the Nun of Monza (1980) and the violent sex thriller The Other Hell (1981). Both films involved a partnership with writer/director Claudio Fragasso, who helped him write and direct the back-to-back productions. Using yet another alias, "Vincent Dawn", Mattei directed Hell of the Living Dead (1980) (aka "Night of the Zombies"), a low-budged zombie picture inspired by other zombie cannibal movies such as Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Lucio Fulci's Zombie (1979). "Virus" was filmed in Spain and used jungle footage from New Guinea and a patch soundtrack from Goblins "Dawn of the Dead" soundtrack, which was a minor hit in Italy and abroad. After directing two women's prison films starring Laura Gemser, Mattei moved to directing sword-and-sorcery flicks, starting with The Seven Magnificent Gladiators (1983). Both Mattei and Fragasso collaborated on the sci-fi/horror flick Rats: Night of Terror (1984), inspired by the futuristic movies of the early 1980s. Mattei considers this his best work, despite his still having to work with a very low budget. He worked relentlessly through the 1980s, directing a pair of "spaghetti westerns", some action flicks and about half of Zombie 3 (1988) after Lucio Fulci was taken off the production, though Mattei was not credited with it. In the early 1990s Mattei directed a series of erotic thrillers and a made-for-TV movie, Cruel Jaws (1995), which was inspired by Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975). Mattei continued making films, with more than 50 to his credit by the 200s. In early 2007 his health began to decline rapidly after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Despite his doctor's warnings, he went through with a surgical operation to have the tumor removed in May of that year. After the surgery he fell into a coma from complications, and died a few days later on May 21, 2007 at age 75. Though some people consider his films to be cheap, insipid and technically inept due in large part to their low budgets and poor production values, Bruno Mattei remains an influential cult film director around the world for his radical film making and willingness to direct pretty much anything with a taboo-breaking topic.- Director
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Lucifer Valentine is known for Slow Torture Puke Chamber (2010), Slaughtered Vomit Dolls (2006) and Black Metal Veins (2012).- Director
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Andy Milligan was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1929. He was a self-taught film maker, playwright, script writer and costume designer. He grew up mostly in Minnesota, but he and his family moved around the country a lot. His father, Andrew Milligan Sr. (1894-1985) was a captain in the U.S. Army who served in the military for over 50 years (retiring in the mid 1960s holding the rank of colonel). His mother, Marie Gladys Hull (1900-1953), was an overweight, neurotic-bipolar alcoholic who physically and verbally abused her husband and children. She served as the basis for scores of her son's characters when he began making films. Milligan had an older half-brother named Harley Hull (1924-1998) and a younger sister named Louise Milligan Howe (1931-2021). After finishing grade school, Milligan joined the U.S. Navy where he served four years. After his honorable discharge, he settled in New York City in 1951 where he dabbled in acting on stage and opened a dress shop.
During the 1950s Milligan became involved in the nascent off-off-Broadway theater movement where he mounted productions of plays by Lord Dunsany and Jean Genet at the Caffe Cino, a small Greenwich Village coffeehouse that served as a hothouse for rising theater talent like Lanford Wilson, Tom Eyen and John Guare. Milligan also became involved with directing low-key theater productions at Cafe La Ma Ma Experimental Theater Club. During this period he operated and designed for a clothing boutique named Ad Lib and used his crude dressmaking skills to costume many theatrical productions.
In the early 1960s Milligan turned to film making. He met some of the actors for his early films at Caffe Cino. His first released film was a 30-minute black-and-white 16 mm short drama entitled Vapors (1965). Set in the notorious gay bathhouse St. Mark's Baths, it was written by Hope Stansbury, the raven-haired beauty who would star in a few of his later films. The film, set on one Friday evening in the St. Mark's Baths, portrays an emotionally awkward and unconsummated meeting between two strangers. Milligan was later employed by producers of exploitation films, particularly William Mishkin, to direct softcore sexploitation and horror features, many featuring actors known from the off-off Broadway theater community.
Milligan then hooked up with famed sexploitation producer William Mishkin and made 11 features, all shot with a single hand-held 16mm Auricon camera on short ends (snippets of film left over from other productions). Some of those include Depraved! (1967), Seeds of Sin (1968) ("Sown in Incest! Harvested in Hate!") and Fleshpot on 42nd Street (1972). Many of these early works play like bizarre morality tales where sleazy characters get violently paid back for their excesses.
In 1966, Milligan set up shop in a Victorian mansion located on northern Staten Island, within walking distance of the ferry and his own house. The house soon became "Hollywood central," where he filmed most of his movies on budgets ranging from $5,000 to $20,000. Milligan was a one-man army--he wrote, directed, built sets and sewed costumes for his splatter epics like The Ghastly Ones (1968). His usual "stock company" (Stansbury, Neil Flanagan, Hal Borske) was often supplemented by Staten Island locals who were dragged into performing.
Milligan even married one of his actresses, Candy Hammond, who starred in a number of his films, most notably as Pussy Johnson in Gutter Trash (1969). No one took the wedding seriously, because Milligan was unabashedly homosexual and an avowed misogynist. The service took place at the Staten Island house, which was still decorated for the movie shoot Seeds. That night, Milligan cruised gay bars to celebrate.
In 1968, Milligan began to make horror movies featuring gore effects with The Ghastly Ones (1968), a 19th century period piece and his first color film which was produced by JER and titled by Sam Sherman. In 1969, he made his next horror movie, Torture Dungeon (1969), a medieval period piece after which he moved to London, England to make movies there after having made a deal with producer Leslie Elliot. After directing Nightbirds (1970) in London, his partnership with Elliot collapsed as he was working on The Body Beneath (1970). Milligan then teamed up again with William Mishkin again where Mishkin produced and Milligan directed three more period piece British horror films which were Bloodthirsty Butchers (1970), The Man with Two Heads (1972), and The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! (1972) (all shot in 1969) before Milligan's return to Staten Island in 1970.
On his return to New York, Milligan wrote and directed another medieval period piece titled Guru, the Mad Monk (1970), which was shot for the first time with a 35mm Arriflex camera and filmed entirely inside a Chelsea, Manhattan church. This movie was released on a double feature with The Body Beneath. Through the next years, Mishkin released Milligan's British-made pictures, some with additional scenes shot in New York. The Rats are Coming! The Werewolves are Here! was one of Mishkin's films in which he had Milligan insert new killer rat scenes shot in New York, mostly at his new Staten Island house on Corson Street where Milligan lived during that time and filmed another horror period piece there in 1973 which was titled Blood (1973).
After directing the 1972 sexploitation drama Fleshpot on 42nd Street (1972), Milligan's output was restricted mostly to gory horror movies as he moved to the southern tip of Staten Island in the Tottenville neighborhood where he lived in and owned and operated a dilapidated hotel located at the end of Main Street right next to the southern end of Staten Island Railway.
In October 1977, Milligan moved into 335 West 39th Street in Manhattan (a four-story building purchased for $50,000 by Milligan and stockholders), where he founded and ran the Troupe Theater, a seedy but fun off-off Broadway venue above which he lived in a third-floor loft until he left New York City for good in March 1985. He moved to Los Angeles, California, where he shot three more contemporary horror movies between 1987 and 1988 as well as operated another theater company, called the Troupe West, which ran until 1990.
Andy Milligan was heavily into S&M and had very few serious relationships (all with men). The few friends he did have were just as emotionally troubled and dangerously disturbed as he was. A Vietnam veteran and ex-convict named Dennis Malvasi, who once drifted into and worked at Andy's Troupe Theater in the late 1970s and early 1980s, later made news headlines in March 2001 when he and his wife were arrested for aiding the flight of fugitive James Kopp, the suspected murderer of a New York abortion doctor. One boyfriend, "human toothpick" B. Wayne Keeton (so-named for his gaunt physical build), was a good natured Louisiana hustler who appeared in a small role in Monstrosity (1987), one of Milligan's last films. Keeton's death from AIDS in June 1989 hit Milligan hard, and he soon began having his own health problems. He learned shortly afterwards that he, too, had contracted AIDS, apparently from Keeton. With no insurance, little money, and the era of exploitation films over, Andy Milligan went into a reclusive decline until his death on June 3, 1991 at age 62.- Producer
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Ted V. Mikels was born on 29 April 1929 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for The Doll Squad (1973), Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1973) and Ten Violent Women (1982). He was married to Geneva Kirsch. He died on 16 October 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.- Writer
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Malcolm D. Lee was born on 11 January 1970 in the USA. He is a writer and director, known for Girls Trip (2017), The Best Man (1999) and The Best Man: The Final Chapters (2022). He has been married to Camilla Banks since 2000. They have three children.- Producer
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Chris Fisher, also known as 'Fish', was born in Pasadena, 1971. He spent his childhood overseas before returning to California where he went to high school in Newport Beach. He attended USC for undergraduate and law school, then began his entertainment career in the William Morris training program. He wrote, produced, or directed three films in the Sundance Midnight Madness section, 'Taboo', Nightstalker', and 'Spun', establishing himself as an independent genre filmmaker. Over the next decade, he went on to make five more genre films, 'Hillside Strangler', 'Dirty', 'S.Darko', 'Street Kings Motor City', and 'Meeting Evil'. He started his career in television as a staff writer on, 'The Cleaner', before going on to direct and produce multiple television dramas for cable, streaming, and network. Fish has produced over 100 episodes of television, and directed more than 70. He has directed 5 of the top 40 episodes rated by fans on IMDB, all from 'Person Of Interest', including the highly rated and critically acclaimed 'If-Then-Else'. He is considered one of the premiere producer/directors in town, having produced long-running hit shows like 'Warehouse 13, Person Of Interest, and The Magicians'. He lives in Ojai with his family.