Curtis Harrington
Curtis Harrington (born 17 September 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA; † 6 May 2007 in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California ) was an American film director, who became known for his many horror films awareness. He is considered one of the most prestigious B-movie directors of this genre, who later also staged melodramatic and fabulous variations.
Life and work
Harrington, who was born in Los Angeles, grew up in rural Beaumont, where he collected 14 - year experience as amateur filmmakers to 16 mm. After attending Occidental College, he studied at UCLA and at the University of Southern California, graduating in 1947 with a degree in the Department of Film Studies. Harrington began his career as an author of a published by the British Film Institute monograph on Josef von Sternberg, followed by various activities in experimental American cinema in the late 1940s. He has worked for film productions of Kenneth Anger as a cinematographer and actor, as well as James Whale and from the mid-1950s as a production assistant Jerry Forest for 20th Century Fox.
After Harrington made several avant-garde short films, he created in 1960 with Nighttide his first full-length feature film, with Dennis Hopper in the lead role. Then he filmed along with the film producer Roger Corman Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965 ), under the pseudonym John Sebastian, and a year later, Queen of Blood ( 1966) with Basil Rathbone in the lead role. Other productions followed, including when he had to be content with increasing age with television productions with well known actors such as the Frenchwoman Simone Signoret. In addition to television films, he staged at the end of his career and episodes of series such as Dynasty, Wonder Woman and Charlie's Angels. In the late 1980s, the filmmakers went back to his old age and lived in retirement, when he made a comeback with the short film Usher celebrated in 2002, which he directed in his garden and has won several awards for its work.
Curtis Harrington died on May 6, 2007 in his home in California.