Curtis Harrington

Curtis Harrington
Born	Gene Curtis Harrington September 17, 1926(1926-09-17) Los Angeles, California
Died	May 6, 2007(2007-05-06) (aged 80) Hollywood Hills, California

Curtis Harrington (September 17, 1926 – May 6, 2007) was an American film and television director whose work included experimental films, horror films, and episodic television.^[1]

Biography

Harrington was born in Los Angeles on September 17, 1926, and grew up in Beaumont, California. His first cinematic endeavors were amateur films he made while still a teenager. He attended Occidental College and the University of Southern California and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a film studies degree.^[1]

He began his career as a film critic, writing a book on Josef von Sternberg in 1948. He directed several avant-garde short films in the 1940s and '50s, including Fragment of Seeking, Picnic, and The Wormwood Star (a film study of the artwork of Marjorie Cameron). Cameron also co-starred in his subsequent film Night Tide (1961) with Dennis Hopper. Harrington worked with Kenneth Anger, serving as a cinematographer on Anger's Puce Moment and acting in Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954).

He also directed Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1971) with Shelley Winters, What's the Matter with Helen? (1972) with Winters and Debbie Reynolds, and Killer Bees (1974) with Gloria Swanson in one of her last film roles.

Harrington had a cameo role in Orson Welles's unfinished The Other Side of the Wind. In the 1970s and 1980s, Harrington directed episodes of Dynasty, Wonder Woman, The Twilight Zone, and Charlie's Angels for television.

Harrington was the driving force in locating the original James Whale production of The Old Dark House (Universal Pictures, 1932). Even though the rights had been sold to Columbia Pictures for a remake, he got George Eastman House to restore the negative. On the Kino International DVD, there is a filmed interview of Harrington explaining why and how this came about. Harrington was an advisor on Bill Condon's Gods and Monsters, about the last days of director James Whale, since Harrington had known Whale at the end of his life. Harrington also has a cameo in this film.

Harrington's final film, the short Usher, is a remake of an unreleased film he did while in high school, Fall of the House of Usher.

He died on May 6, 2007, of complications from a stroke he had suffered in 2005.^[1] He is interred in the Cathedral Mausoleum at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. He is considered one of the forerunners of New Queer Cinema.^[2]

House of Harrington a short documentary about the director's life, was released in 2008. It was directed by Jeffrey Schwarz and Tyler Hubby and filmed several years before Harrington's death. It includes footage of his high school film Fall of the House of Usher.

Filmography as director

• Fall of the House of Usher (1942)- unreleased 8mm short. Some footage appears in documentary House of Harrington.^[3]
• Fragment of Seeking (1946)
• Picnic (1948)
• On the Edge (1949)
• The Assignation (1952)
• The Wormwood Star (1955)
• Night Tide (1961) [not released widely until 1963]
• Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)
• Queen of Blood (1966)
• Games (1967)
• How Awful About Allan (1970) (TV)
• What's the Matter with Helen? (1971)
• Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1971)
• The Killing Kind (1973)
• The Cat Creature (1973) (TV)
• Killer Bees (1974) (TV)
• The Dead Don't Die (1975) (TV)
• Ruby (1977)
• Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978) (TV)
• Mata Hari (1985)
• Usher (2002) (short film)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Martin, Douglas (May 10, 2007). "Curtis Harrington, Director Of Horror Films, Dies at 80". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/movies/10harrington.html. Retrieved 2007-07-21. "Curtis Harrington, who dived under his seat while watching his first horror film as a child, then went on to be a filmmaker known for his elegant, edgy cinematic forays into the macabre, died on Sunday at his home in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles. He was 80." 
2. ^ glbtq >> arts >> New Queer Cinema
3. ^ [1]

External links

• Retrospective in Terror: An Interview with Curtis Harrington
• Curtis Harrington Facebook Page]
• Curtis Harrington at the Internet Movie Database
• Variety Obituary

Persondata
Name	Harrington, Curtis
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 17, 1926
Place of birth	Los Angeles, California
Date of death	May 6, 2007
Place of death	Hollywood Hills, California