Actor / Director Profile

Curtis Harrington was an excellent and shamefully underrated writer and director who specialized in marvelously offbeat and atmospheric low-budget independent horror pictures. Harrington was born on September 17th, 1926 in Los Angeles and grew up in Beaumont, California. A lifelong hardcore film buff from a very young age, Harrington worked as a movie theater usher, a messenger at Paramount, and a stagehand during his younger days. He made his first 8mm effort at age fourteen and attended UCLA. In the post World War II 40s and 50s Harrington made a bunch of experimental avante garde underground shorts which include "Picnic," "Fragment of Seeking," "The Assignation," and "Wormwood Star." He was the cinematographer on Kenneth Anger's "Puce Moment" and acted in Anger's "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome." Harrington also was involved with fellow avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren. He began working for Jerry Wald Productions at 20th Century Fox in 1957 and served as a producer's assistant on several big budget pictures that include "Peyton Place" and "The Long Hot Summer." In 1961 Harrington made his strong and impressive feature length fright film debut with the nicely moody and quirky "Night Tide." His follow-up features were a pleasingly diverse, idiosyncratic and often entertaining bunch; said pictures include the nifty sci-fi/horror "Alien" precursor "Queen of Blood," the delightfully campy Shelley Winters vehicles "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" and "What's the Matter With Helen?" (the latter was Harrington's personal favorite amongst all the movies he made), the perverse "The Killing Kind," and the immensely fun "Ruby." Moreover, Harrington directed a handful of solid and satisfying made-for-TV offerings: "How Awful About Allan," "The Cat Creature," "The Killer Bees," "The Dead Don't Die," and the hilariously horrible "Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell." In addition, Harrington directed episodes of such popular TV shows as "Dynasty," "The Twilight Zone," "The Colbys," "Hotel," "Wonder Woman," and "Charlie's Angels." Harrigton's final film was the typically oddball short "Usher." Curtis Harrington died at age 80 from complications following a stroke on May 6th, 2007.