Gordon Hessler(1925-2014)
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Gordon Hessler was born in Germany, the son of a Danish mother and an
English father. Educated in England, he moved to the US while in his
late teens and spent several years working in documentaries. At
Universal, "I guess because I had an English accent", Hessler was
placed under contract to
Alfred Hitchcock and went to
work on the master director's TV series
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)
and
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962),
climbing the ladder from story reader to associate producer and finally
to producer in the series' final year. A novelette rejected for the
show became the basis for
The Woman Who Wouldn't Die (1965), Hessler's first
feature film as director. When production of the AIP
Edgar Allan Poe series was
shifted to Britain, Hessler collaborated with producer
Louis M. Heyward and horror enthusiast/
screenwriter Christopher Wicking on
three Poe films and on the sci-fi shocker
Scream and Scream Again (1970).
Carrying on in the fantasy field, he also directed the
Ray Harryhausen stop-motion swashbuckler
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)
and additional small-screen suspensers like the
Psycho (1960)-inspired
Scream, Pretty Peggy (1973)
with Bette Davis.
