An editor has nominated this article for deletion. You are welcome to participate in the deletion discussion , which will decide whether or not to retain it. |
 |
James Gaines | |
|---|---|
| Born | James Larry M. Gaines Jr. |
| Occupation | Film actor / Writer / director |
James Gaines, birth name James Larry M. Gaines Jr., is a character actor, singer, musician, writer, director and producer born on May 18, in Maui, Hawaii. He was sometimes also credited as Jaimes Gaines, Jim Gaines, and James Gainers.
He acted mainly in low-budget action films in the Philippines during the 1980s, many of which were produced by K.Y. Lim's Silver Star Film Company (called Kinavesa in the Philippines), and directed by Teddy Page or John Gale. Next to Mike Monty, with whom he appeared in several films together, Gaines was one of the most prolific actors in Filipino B-movies. He also appeared in some Italian and American productions shot in the archipelago.
Gaines acted in numerous movies with fellow actors based in the philippines Romano Kristoff, Bruce Baron, Mike Cohen, Ken Watanabe, Ann Milhench, Gwendolyn Hung, and Ronnie Patterson. Gaines also appeared in all of the films Richard Harrison made for Silver Star: As Digger the informer in Fireback , as Tom in Hunter's Crossing, as a gangster in Blood Debts (1983), and as Greene, one of the heroic mercenaries led by Harrison in Intrusion Cambodia (1984). The Silver Star films have since become minor cult films in Z-movie fandom.
Arguably the most well-known movies Gaines appeared in were The Last Hunter (starring David Warbeck, Tisa Farrow, Tony King and John Steiner) (1980) for director Antonio Margheriti, Robowar (starring Reb Brown, Catherine Hickland, John P. Dulaney, Max Laurel and Mel Davidson) (1988) for director Bruno Mattei and brief parts in American Ninja (starring Michael Dudikoff and Steve James) (1985) for director Sam Firstenberg and Enter The Ninja (starring Franco Nero, Susan George, Christopher George and Sho Kosugi) (1981) for director Menahem Golan.
Gaines also co-wrote the script for Black Fire (1985) and wrote War Without End (1987), both directed by Teddy Page, and probably had other writing credits under different pseudonyms. As the Filipino film industry dwindled in the early 1990s, James Gaines slowed down his film work and is now semi-retired as an actor.
Gaines now mostly work behind the camera as director and producer. Gaines co-directed with Teddy Page Phantom Soldiers (1986), Matira ang Matibay with Page and Phillip Kho, directed Joe Reyes (starring Roi Vinzon) in 1996. His first directorial debut Secrets of King Maji's Treasure (starring Gary Daniels), a film shot in the mid-1980s, and had other directing credits under different pseudonyms. His latest work as writer and director is Mundo which he also co-produced (2007), Associate Director for The Lease (2018), Directed Bataan Risers MTV, I Love You Po MTV, Copy writer and Director, Philippines in 60 seconds Ad campaign (2018), Maya The Sacrifice trailer teaser (Producer & Director 2019),
His most recent film appearances were in 2007, in Zombi: La Creazione directed by Bruno Mattei, and Vengeance of Cleopatra Wong, directed by Bobby A. Suarez, The Refrigerator (pridyider) (2012), Orange, in 2015, Fright Gallery web Series in 2016 and Tedd (inanimate soul) in 2017. Gaines was also interviewed in the 2007 documentary The Search for Weng Weng. Gaines is also mentioned briefly by Richard Harrison, Sebastian Harrison and John P. Dulaney in the books Gods in Polyester, Or, A Survivors' Account of 70's Cinema Obscura (2004/Succubus Press) and Gods in Spandex, Or, A Survivors' Account of 80's Cinema Obscura (2004/Succubus Press).
A movie star is an actor who is famous for their starring, or leading, roles in movies. The term is used for performers who are marketable stars as they become popular household names and whose names are used to promote movies, for example in trailers and posters. The most prominent movie stars are known in the industry as bankable stars.
Richard Harrison is an American actor, writer, director and producer. Harrison was very prolific and worked with most of the well-known names in European B-movies during the 1960s and 1970s, also branching out to exploitation films shot all over the world in the early 1970s.
Godfrey Ho is a prolific former Hong Kong film director and screenwriter. Ho is believed to have directed more than one hundred films, including over 80 movies from 1980 to 1990 before his retirement in 2000. Many of his works are now regarded cult films by aficionados of Z movies as being among some of the most "so bad it's good" entertaining movies ever created.
Bruce Baron was an American actor.
Teddy Page is a Filipino film director and occasional writer. Page, whose real name is Teddy Chiu, began his career as a young man in the early 1980s, directing low-budget action movies for producer K.Y. Lim's Silver Star Film Company.
Mike Monty was an American character actor, born in 1936 in Chattanooga, Tennessee as Michael O'Donoghue but he changed his name to Mike Monty late in life.
Romano Kristoff is a Spanish actor, writer and director, better known for his work in Filipino cinema. He worked mostly in the Philippines between the 1980s and early 1990s. He was also credited as Rom Kristoff, Ron Kristoff, Run Kristoff, Ron Krastoff, and other similar variants.
Fireback is a Filipino low-budget action movie directed by Teddy Page (Teddy Chiu) and starring Richard Harrison, Bruce Baron, James Gaines, Ann Milhench, Gwendolyn Hung, Mike Monty, Ronnie Patterson, and Ruel Vernal.
Gods In Polyester: A Survivors' Account Of 70's Cinema Obscura is a cult film book covering mainly American obscure, low-budget, and independent film horror, sci-fi, exploitation film, Blaxploitation, Spaghetti Western, and action films that were created between 1970 and 1981.
Bill Rebane is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for low budget movies such as Monster a Go-Go and The Giant Spider Invasion. Rebane also ran for Governor of Wisconsin in 1979 and 2002 as the American Reform Party candidate.
Mel Novak is an American actor who is best known for villainous roles in Black Belt Jones, Game of Death, and An Eye for an Eye. He is also known for doing all of his own stunts and fighting scenes.
Claudio Fragasso is a film director and screenwriter. Fragasso first attempted to make art films in the early 1970s, then became a screenwriter in the Italian film industry in the mid-1970s. Fragasso met director Bruno Mattei, which led to a ten-year partnership from 1980 to 1990 during which the two worked together closely on films, with Fragasso's contributions often going uncredited. Fragasso's wife Rossella Drudi was also a screenwriter and collaborated with him on a number of projects. Fragasso would later go on to write and direct his own films in the 1980s, including Monster Dog with rock musician Alice Cooper and After Death. Fragasso directed Troll 2 in 1989, which was later the topic of Best Worst Movie, a documentary film that discussed Troll 2's fandom.
Black Emanuelle is a softcore sexploitation film from 1975 directed by Bitto Albertini. The film was set in Africa and shot mostly in Kenya. The music was composed by Nico Fidenco. Black Emanuelle was followed by a number of sequels, all revolving around the erotic adventures of Mae Jordan, a globe-trotting, hedonistic investigative journalist and photographer known to her readers as "Emanuelle". Her character has been described as "a strong and independent woman, sexually proactive, at the centre of wealthy young and old white men of power, and involved in any sort of depraved set and situation."
John Gale, born Jun Gallardo, was a Filipino B-movie director, who started his career with martial arts movies in the 1970s and continued to Z-movie actioners in the 1980s, often produced by K.Y. Lim's Silver Star Film Company. Silver Star was a notorious but prolific producer of extremely low-budget action films, characterized by very low production values.
Zombi 3 is a 1988 Italian horror film directed by Lucio Fulci and Bruno Mattei and starring Deran Sarafian, Beatrice Ring, and Ottaviano Dell'acqua. The film is an in-name-only sequel to Fulci's Zombi 2. The film is about a group of scientists at a top-secret research facility who are working on a biological weapon called Death One, which mutates and kills the living creatures and reanimates the dead. The weapon is leaked out of the facility, which leads to a spread of infection among soldiers and touring people in the area.
Roberto A. Suarez, commonly referred to as "Bobby" or "BAS", was a Filipino film producer, director and screenwriter who achieved international recognition for movies now regarded as cult classics.
Amable R. "Tikoy" Aguiluz VI was a Filipino film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer. In 1999, he founded the Cinemanila International Film Festival in Manila. Aguiluz was one of the leading figures in the alternative cinema movement in the Philippines.
James Iglehart is a former American actor who appeared in six films during the 1970s and was the leading actor in the 1973 blaxploitation film Savage!.
Robowar is a 1988 science fiction-action-horror film, starring Reb Brown, Catherine Hickland, and Massimo Vanni. Directed by Bruno Mattei under his most common pseudonym, Vincent Dawn, and written by the husband and wife team of Claudio Fragasso and Rosella Drudi, Robowar is a rip-off of the 1987 American film Predator, in the tradition of Shocking Dark and Strike Commando, both also directed by Mattei. Although featuring a partially American cast, the movie was not released in the United States until 2019, when Severin Films gave it a Blu-Ray release.
The Search for Weng Weng is a 2013 documentary film about Filipino actor Weng Weng (1957–1992), directed by Andrew Leavold. The film follows Leavold's quest to discover the story of the largely forgotten actor, whose real name was Ernesto de la Cruz. His starring roles were in locally produced action comedies films that found worldwide distribution in the early 1980s. Weng Weng is the shortest leading man in cinema history, standing at 83 cm. Leavold, who is Australian, decided to travel to the Philippines with a backpack and a camera and assemble every piece of information he could on the actor. Leavold interviewed many who sometimes both worked with and knew the actor. This includes Eddie Nicart, Bobby A. Suarez, Marrie Lee, Dolphy, Imelda Marcos, Tikoy Aguiluz, among many others. Leavold eventually discovered his remaining relatives, who described the actor's childhood and last years.
