Samuel Lowe Irvin, Jr. was born June 14, 1956,[3][4][5] in Asheville, North Carolina.[5] His grandfather, Warren Irvin, was the district manager for Wilby-Kincey Theaters, a chain of cinemas throughout the southeastern United States. His father, Sam Irvin Sr., co-owned Irvin-Fuller Theaters, a competing chain with cinemas in both North and South Carolina. Irvin worked in these theaters in his youth. Later, during his college years, he worked for Irvin-Fuller Theaters as its Advertising and Publicity Manager.[citation needed]
In 1978, Irvin graduated from the University of South Carolina[4] with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Arts. While attending the university, he was the film critic for The Gamecock, the campus newspaper, and won a student film award for his thesis short film.[citation needed] He was also chairman of the University of South Carolina Film Committee that ran a year-round cinema program at the campus theater.
During his summer break in 1977, Irvin interned at the Chicago shooting location for Brian De Palma’s The Fury. He worked on the feature as a production assistant, an extra, and also wrote a journal on the making of the movie that was published in Cinefantastique magazine, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1978. Irvin also conducted an exclusive interview with Amy Irving in which, for the first time anywhere, she discussed her relationship with Steven Spielberg; it was published in Cinefantastique, Vol 6, No. 4 / Vol. 7, No. 1, 1978.
In 2013, Irvin was extensively interviewed on camera by filmmaker Robert Fischer about his experiences on the set of The Fury for The Fury: A Location Journal, a 50-minute bonus feature that is included on the 2013 Blu-ray DVD release of The Fury distributed by Arrow Films in the U.K. and Ireland and by Carlotta Films in France. In its October 26, 2013 issue, Telegraph Magazine (the weekly supplement to London's popular daily newspaper The Telegraph) ran a full-page story and photo of Irvin reminiscing about his time on the set of The Fury.
After graduating from the University of South Carolina in May 1978, Irvin worked as the Associate Producer and Production Manager on Brian De Palma's Home Movies. Then, Irvin worked as De Palma's assistant on Dressed to Kill starring Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen and Keith Gordon. He also worked with De Palma on several projects in development, including Blow Out.
Irvin wrote a comprehensive, 13,000-word chronicle on the making of Dressed to Kill for Boobs and Blood magazine, issue number 4, published in December 2020. The entire issue was devoted to Irvin's article.
Irvin's first directorial effort, which he also wrote and produced, was the 1985 dark comedy short Double Negative, which starred Bill Randolph, Justin Henry, Wayne Knight, Dori Legg, and William Finley.[7] It premiered as an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival and subsequently played theatrically in New York and Los Angeles as a warm-up for various feature films. It was nominated for a Gold Hugo Award for Best Short Film at the 1985 Chicago International Film Festival. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that it was "an exceptionally promising first effort."[8]Double Negative is included as an extra bonus feature on the 2013 Blu-ray DVD release of Brian DePalma's The Fury distributed by Arrow Films in the U.K. and Ireland and by Carlotta Films in France.
Irvin went on to direct many feature films, including:
Also for television, Irvin directed the opening of The 100th Anniversary of the World Series (October 18, 2003) for the Fox Network (a "through the ages" montage featuring the music of and starring Sheila E).
Irvin directed several segments for the Fox Network's 2005 Super Bowl XXXIX including several comedy sketches starring Eugene Levy as a nutty gadget inventor trying to improve the entertainment value of football. Other vignettes included Will Smith, Drew Barrymore, and Jimmy Fallon. Irvin also directed the surrealistic opening battle between ninja warriors and football players.
And for the Fox Network opening of the 2007 Allstate Sugar Bowl, Irvin directed "Dueling Musicians" shot on the streets of New Orleans (broadcast January 3, 2007).
After directing several American-financed films in Romania, Irvin was invited by Romanian-based Mediapro Studios to direct Garcea si olteni, a spin-off of Romania's most popular television show, starring a Monty Python-like sketch comedy group known as Vacante Mare. It became the highest grossing motion picture in Romanian history up to that time, beating the previous record-holder, James Cameron's Titanic.
Also in Romania, Irvin directed Am să mă întorc bărbat (I Will Return A Man), a rock opera performed by the Romanian rock group Vama Veche broadcast live on television from the National Theater in Bucharest. It was an anti-war musical in the same genre as Pink Floyd's The Wall.
In connection with his research on the life of Thompson, Irvin served as a historical consultant on the Tony Award-winning Broadway event Liza's at the Palace. He produced and annotated the 2009 3-CD box set compilation Think Pink! A Kay Thompson Party (Sepia Records) and he appeared in and consulted on Paramount Home Entertainment's documentary Kay Thompson: Think Pink! (an extra included in Paramount's Centennial Collection DVD edition of Stanley Donen's Funny Face starring Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, and Kay Thompson).
Irvin was the Guest Editor of a special issue of Little Shoppe of Horrors No. 38 focusing on the making of Frankenstein: The True Story, published June 2017, including Irvin's 50,000-word chronicle on the movie which won the 2017 Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Article of the Year. The magazine also included Irvin's exclusive interviews with Leonard Whiting, Jane Seymour, David McCallum, Nicola Pagett, Don Bachardy, among many others. The issue also features an exclusive never-before-published essay on the writing of the movie by the late Christopher Isherwood and his partner Don Bachardy. Irvin also arranged for a special Foreword by best-selling author Anne Rice and an essay by Mark Gatiss, the co-creator of Sherlock.
Subsequently, Irvin did all the special features for Shout! Factory's acclaimed 2020 Blu-ray release of Frankenstein: The True Story—including a three-hour audio commentary plus newly-filmed interviews with Jane Seymour, Leonard Whiting and co-screenwriter Don Bachardy.
Irvin also won a second Rondo Award for Best Interview of the Year for "Elvira Exposed!", an in-depth interview with Cassandra Peterson published in Screem magazine #36 in 2018.
Between projects, Irvin has served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts where he taught graduate courses on directing. Among his former students is Ryan Coogler, acclaimed writer-director of Fruitvale Station, winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Un Certain Regard award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Coogler has since directed the acclaimed hit Creed starring Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone; and the Marvel superhero movie Black Panther.
Most recently, Irvin authored Sam's Toilet Paper Caper!, a children's book parody, illustrated by Dan Gallagher. The book was inspired by Irvin's own real-life quest to find toilet paper during the 2020 pandemic paper panic. Drenched in movie references from The Sound of Music to Carrie, the grocery store clerk is a dead ringer for Peter Lorre. Published by Irvin's own imprint, Knuckle Samwitch Books, it is available in paperback and ebook on Amazon.com. All profits from the sales of the book are being donated to the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
Irvin also authored the novel ORBGASM: An Erotic Pulp Sci-Fi Satyricon, published by Irvin's own imprint, Knuckle Samwitch Books, available in paperback and ebook on Amazon.com. All profits from the sales of the book are being donated to the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
Irvin resides in Los Angeles with Gary Bowers, his partner since 1982. They married August 12, 2016.
Frankenstein is a 1931 American pre-Code science fiction horror film directed by James Whale, produced by Carl Laemmle Jr., and adapted from a 1927 play by Peggy Webling, which in turn was based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The Webling play was adapted by John L. Balderston and the screenplay written by Francis Edward Faragoh and Garrett Fort, with uncredited contributions from Robert Florey and John Russell.
Roger William Corman was an American film director, producer and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he was known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film.
Young Frankenstein is a 1974 American comedy horror film directed by Mel Brooks. The screenplay was co-written by Brooks and Gene Wilder. Wilder also starred in the lead role as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Peter Boyle portrayed the monster. The film co-stars Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn, and Gene Hackman.
Van Helsing is a 2004 action horror film written and directed by Stephen Sommers. It stars Hugh Jackman as monster hunter Van Helsing and Kate Beckinsale as Anna Valerious. Van Helsing is both an homage and tribute to the Universal Horror Monster films from the 1930s and 1940s, of which Sommers is a fan.
The Blob is a 1958 American science fiction horror film directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. from a screenplay by Theodore Simonson and Kate Phillips, based on an idea by Irving H. Millgate. It stars Steve McQueen and Aneta Corsaut and co-stars Earl Rowe and Olin Howland.
Cassandra Gay Peterson is an American actress best known for her portrayal of the horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Peterson gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ-TV in her stage persona as Elvira, hosting Elvira's Movie Macabre, a weekly B movie presentation. A member of the Los Angeles-based improvisational and sketch comedy troupe The Groundlings, Peterson based her Elvira persona in part on a "Valley girl"-type character she created while a member of the troupe.
Don Coscarelli Jr. is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in horror films. His directing credits include the first four films in the Phantasm franchise, as well as The Beastmaster (1982) and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002).
Richard Miller was an American character actor who appeared in more than 180 films, including many produced by Roger Corman. He later appeared in the films of directors who began their careers with Corman, including Joe Dante, James Cameron, and Martin Scorsese, with the distinction of appearing in every film directed by Dante. He was known for playing the beleaguered everyman, often in one-scene appearances.
Eloise is a series of children's books written in the 1950s by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight. The series consists of Eloise (1955) and four sequels.
Kay Thompson was an American author, singer, vocal arranger, vocal coach, composer, musician, dancer, actress, and choreographer. She became famous for creating the Eloise children's books and for her role in the movie Funny Face.
Caroline Thompson is an American novelist, screenwriter, film director, and producer. She wrote the screenplays for the Tim Burton-directed films Edward Scissorhands and Corpse Bride and the Burton-produced The Nightmare Before Christmas. She co-wrote the story for Edward Scissorhands and co-adapted a new stage version of the film with director and choreographer Matthew Bourne. Thompson also adapted the screenplay for the film version of Wicked Lovely, a bestselling fantasy series, in 2011, but the production was put into turnaround. She directed Black Beauty (1994); Buddy (1997), which she also wrote; and the television film Snow White: The Fairest of Them All (2001), also as producer and co-writer.
Fred Olen Ray is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter of more than 200 low-to-medium-quality feature films in many genres, including horror, science fiction, action/adventure, erotic thrillers, crime dramas, and holiday films.
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by James Signorelli, starring Cassandra Peterson as eccentric horror host Elvira. The film's screenplay, written by Peterson, John Paragon, and Sam Egan, follows Elvira inheriting a house nestled in the heart of an overtly prudish community.
The Universal Monsters media franchise includes characters based on a series of horror films produced by Universal Pictures and released between 1913–1956.
Mad Monster Party? is a 1967 stop-motion animated musical comedy film produced by Rankin/Bass Productions for Embassy Pictures. The film stars the voices of Boris Karloff, Allen Swift, Gale Garnett, and Phyllis Diller. It tells the story of a mad scientist who achieves the secret of total destruction as he summons all the monsters to his island home to show it off while planning to retire as the head of the "Worldwide Organization of Monsters".
Fright Night was the name of two science fiction and horror film programs. One ran from 1970 to 1981, and the other ran from 1973 to 1987. Both programs were broadcast by KHJ-TV Los Angeles, and its sister-station WOR-TV New York City.
William Hannan Spier was an American writer, producer, and director for television and radio. He is best known for his radio work, notably Suspense and The Adventures of Sam Spade.
The Wayans family is an American show-business family. Family members include Keenen Ivory Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Damon Wayans Sr., Kim Wayans, Damon Wayans Jr., Damien Dante Wayans, and Chaunté Wayans. Works created by Wayans family members include the Scary Movie film series, The Wayans Bros., In Living Color, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, White Chicks, My Wife and Kids, and Little Man.
Elvira's Movie Macabre, or simply Movie Macabre, is an American hosted horror movie television program that originally aired locally from 1981 to 1986. The show features B movies, particularly those in the horror and science fiction genres, and is hosted by Elvira, a character with a black dress and heaven bump hairstyle, played by Cassandra Peterson. Elvira occasionally interrupts the films with comments and jokes, and in some episodes receives phone calls from a character called "the Breather".
The Wrong... is an American television thriller film series starring and produced by Vivica A. Fox for Lifetime. The series was produced by Hybrid Films and directed by David DeCoteau. More than 26 movies were produced between 2016 and 2024. Some of the other notable actors in the series include Jason-Shane Scott, Jessica Morris, Tracy Nelson, Dominique Swain, and Eric Roberts.
1 2 Ward, Doris Cline; Biddix, Charles D. (1981). The Heritage of Old Buncombe County. Asheville, N.C.: Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society. p.239. ISBN9780894591594.
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