Biography

Boston-born Herbert Strock's introduction to the movie business was as director of the Fox Newsreel crew, visiting Hollywood stars in their homes. After serving with the Ordnance Motion Picture Division, he found employment as an editor at MGM and later moved into the infant medium of TV, producing and directing The Cases of Eddie Drake (1952), the first-ever motion picture film to become a network series. Strock made the transition to feature film directing in 1953, when (in the midst of production) he took over direction of the SF thriller The Magnetic Monster (1953) from Curt Siodmak. Today he operates his own post-production facilities.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tom Weaver <TomWeavr@aol.com>

Died at the Riverside County Regional Medical Center following a car accident.

He is best remembered for his drive-in movie fare which included Blood of Dracula (1957) and Gog (1954) shot in 3-D.

Talks about directing Blood of Dracula (1957) in the book "A Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde" (McFarland, 2010) by Tom Weaver.

[about the troubled production Monstroid (1980), which he took over from another director] A terrible movie we made in New Mexico . . . John [John Carradine] and Tony [Anthony Eisley] were the only bright spots in the production.

[about the string of low-budget sci-fi movies he made in the 1950s and 1960s] I remember when I was doing these pictures, my kids were ashamed of me, they felt I was pandering. I said, "Look, we've got to eat--they're fun to do and I don't mind". Now they're clamoring for me to collect the posters of these films, which I've been able to do.

[about Whit Bissell] He was a very capable actor, always on time, always knew his lines--he was "Old Mr. Reliable", and he could play almost anything you wanted him to.

[about The Crawling Hand (1963)] I could have had Burt Reynolds, who read for a part, but I didn't think Burt was good enough; at that time, he was a stuntman. So we wound up with Kent Taylor, who was a bit of a problem. He was never on time and he never knew his lines.