William Castle

William Castle ( born April 24, 1914 in New York City, New York, † May 31, 1977 in Los Angeles, California ) was an American film director and producer, and actor. He was born as the son of Jewish parents under the name of William Castle.

Life

To avoid problems and discrimination out of the way, William Castle name into William Castle. Castle was involved early on in the show business. He started at age 15 as an extra in stage plays. Slowly but surely he worked his way up and became a respected performer on New York stage. At age 23 he moved to Los Angeles. In Columbia Pictures, he was dialogue director. After six years he was allowed to Hollywood for the first time direct. 1946 Castle then worked with Orson Welles together on the film The Lady from Shanghai.

At the end of the 1940s, Castle staged then B- movies, primarily fast heruntergefilmte adventure and costume films, as well as Western. One of these Western, Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven, from 1948 he turned to the famous Western actor and World War II hero Audie Murphy. After founding his own production company, he resorted to horror genre. The weak se films were spiced up by this Werbegimmicks, by which he became famous. For example, there was a life insurance over $ 1,000, in the event that a spectator would die to fear of death. In a ghost film the audience was given a pair of special glasses ( anaglyph ) to hide most terrifying figures. In The Tingler escapes a worm- like monster, whereupon worm-like dolls of extras were thrown at the audience in the cinema. Also let Castle in cinema halls illuminated skeletons hang. In his films, he sat also targeted comedic elements, however, remained largely ineffective. 1962 William Castle filmed the novel " Zotz! " By Walter Karig. Peak of his production work was then in 1967 the film Rosemary 's Baby, which he produced with director Roman Polanski. Then he said goodbye to the cinema, and contented himself with the production of horror films for television. 1974 dared Castle a cinema comeback with the film Shank. His most recent film work was the animal horror shocker fire beetles in 1975.

The since 1948 with Ellen Falck married Castle died in 1977 of a heart attack. His daughter Terry Castle was co-producer on two remakes of films of her father.

Filmography (selection)

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