Biography

Peter Carpenter

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Handsome and muscular 6'3" hunk Peter Carpenter hailed from Oakland, California. Of Spanish and Italian descent, Carpenter was part of the Corbelli family who lived in the East Bay area and was raised in the Catholic faith (the name of his production company Jude Productions was done in tribute to St. Jude Thaddeus, who's the Catholic patron saint of hope and impossible causes as well as was Carpenter's confirmation name). Peter was involved in a business that made men's slacks prior to landing his first film role as a Mountie in Russ Meyer's Vixen! (1968) after Meyer saw a photo of Carpenter with a girlfriend who had auditioned for a role in the movie. Peter went on to play a lead role in the obscure exploitation melodrama Love Me Like I Do (1970). Carpenter subsequently formed a partnership with producer Chris Marconi to make the gloriously lurid drive-in double whammy of Blood Mania (1970) and Point of Terror (1971), which Carpenter not only starred in, but also co-produced and wrote the stories for. (Both of these movies were picked up for theatrical release by the legendary exploitation outfit Crown International Pictures.) Peter was planning on making another film called "Middle of Midnite" when he died quite suddenly under still unresolved and mysterious circumstances sometime in the early 1970's.
- IMDb mini biography by: woodyanders

According to an interview with actress Leslie Simms, Capernter's real first name was Paige. Moreover, Carpenter was a student in an acting class taught by Simms in the 1960's.
Attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, Los Angeles, California.
Enlisted in the US Air Force on December 2, 1958 and was released from the Air Force on September 5, 1962.

[from a newspaper article that was published in January, 1971] The industry is in bad shape. The people in Hollywood don't care about films. They're only worried about lining their pockets.
[on his film Blood Mania (1970)] I'd always admired Alfred Hitchcock pictures, the talent he has for springing the unexpected on his audience. All I knew about filmmaking was from working with Meyer [Russ Meyer]. But instead of just sex and violence, I added a good suspense story, good acting and direction. We've done great business everywhere it's played so far. So I guess the formula works as entertainment.
[on his film Blood Mania (1970)] When I'd finished shooting, I didn't know how to get distribution, but I figured I could market my film like I did the slacks. I packed up the color slides and a portable projector and went around knocking on doors.

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