Irwin Allen
Irwin Allen ( born June 12, 1916 in New York City, USA, † November 2, 1991 in Santa Monica, California ) was an American film producer who became known as the Master of Disaster in the 1970s by several disaster movies.
Life
Irwin Allen went after his studies in 1938 as editor of a magazine to Hollywood. He produced his own radio show 1939-1950. He was also a director and responsible for the screenplay.
As a film producer, he first appeared in 1950 for RKO in appearance. For Warner Bros. he produced two films 1956-1957. After a circus film for Allied Artists Pictures, he joined in 1960 in a year-long partnership with 20th Century Fox one. His directorial debut, the documentary The Sea Around Us, has already won the 1953 Oscar for Best Documentary. Rachel Carson, the author of the original book was, however, disappointed with the lurid elements of the film. His second directorial effort was followed in 1956 with the documentary calls the animal world in which he could animate a dinosaur sequence using the stop-motion technique by Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen. He joined the film and took over the government as well as production of the next five films made over 1957-1962. The special effects for the film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle - Lost World were tailored to fit that of the film Journey to the Center of the Earth. After the sci-fi film company ring of fire followed 1962, the Jules Verne adaptation Five Weeks in a Balloon. For all these directorial work, he also wrote the screenplay.
As a producer, script writer and director, he moved in the 60s to television. He began science-fiction and adventure series like The Seaview - Secret Mission (1964-1968), Lost between alien worlds (1965-1968), Time Tunnel (1966-1967) and Land of the Giants (1968-1970) to produce. To save costs, special effects were cut into it from his previous films in the series or props reused several times for the different series.
After the success of Allen Airport saw the potential for further disaster movies and he produced The Poseidon Adventure with 20th Century Fox. With even greater effort Towering Inferno was realized, a co-production of Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox. These films have been successful and are still regarded as the epitome of the disaster film. In both productions the action scenes of Allen came himself, he moved to Warner Bros. and turned to the production of the action film Viva Knievel - The death jumps with the disaster films The deadly swarm and hunt for the Poseidon, who failed in spite of a big star banns at the box office. Allen's last post for the movies, the Warner Bros. production was the day on which went under the world.
His television work went on in spite of his new movie insert with science-fiction and adventure films like At 9 clock goes under the earth (1971) and Adventures in Atlantis ( 1978) on. The disaster film he brought the flood breaks loose (1976) and Bloody Inferno (1977 ) also in the domestic television room. The start of short-lived television series was The Swiss Family Robinson (1975) and Code Red (1981 ) set. His television career ended with Alice in Wonderland (1985) and cry for justice (1986).
Irwin Allen passed away on November 2, 1991 in Santa Monica, California of a heart attack.
He was married to Sheila Ann Mathews, the smaller roles also took in some of his films.