Michael Armstrong (filmmaker)

Last updated

Michael Armstrong
Michael Armstrong.jpg
Michael Armstrong at the Fantastic Films Weekend in Bradford, England
Born (1944-07-24) 24 July 1944 (age 78)
Other namesAl Beresford, Sergio Casstner, Edward Hyde
Occupation(s)Writer, director

Michael Armstrong (born 24 July 1944 in Bolton, Lancashire) is an English writer and director.

Contents

Armstrong trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and was writing and directing films at the age of 22 with the award-winning short, The Image starring David Bowie and Michael Byrne. The following year, he wrote and directed his first feature film, The Haunted House of Horror , starring Frankie Avalon, Jill Haworth, Mark Wynter, Richard O'Sullivan and Dennis Price, following it with the notorious Mark of the Devil , starring Herbert Lom and Udo Kier which exceeded box office expectations in Europe and America[ citation needed ] on its first release in 1970 and has grown to be considered a cult film.[ citation needed ]

Since then, Armstrong's film credits have included the highly successful sex comedies The Sex Thief (1973) and Eskimo Nell (1975), both of which featured Armstrong himself, Adventures of a Private Eye (1977), and House of the Long Shadows (1983) starring Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and John Carradine. In all he has written and/or directed seventeen feature films internationally, for which he has won numerous awards.

His television credits include The Professionals , Shoestring and Return of the Saint . His theatre work includes, in Los Angeles, writing and directing a new musical, My Jewish Vampire , and in the UK, a specially conceived work for actors and orchestra for a royal charity performance at the Royal Albert Hall, The Enchanted Orchestra featuring the London Symphony Orchestra and an all-star cast of fifteen actors including the legendary Max Wall and headed by Sir John Mills. He has also produced and directed plays both on tour and in London's West End, taught and directed, periodically, at various drama schools, created a unique "structured Acting Course", published the magazine The Grapevine and worked as a film critic for Films & Filming.

Armstrong is currently working on plans for a new theatrical venture. London Repertory Company will be London's first full-time professional traditional repertory company to operate commercially in the heart of the West End. In 2014, he is due to direct a new film, Orphanage, based on a script he wrote in the early 1980s.

Filmography

Trivia

Related Research Articles

<i>The Rocky Horror Picture Show</i> 1975 film by Jim Sharman

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 independent musical comedy horror film by 20th Century Fox, produced by Lou Adler and Michael White and directed by Jim Sharman. The screenplay was written by Sharman and actor Richard O'Brien, who is also a member of the cast. The film is based on the 1973 musical stage production The Rocky Horror Show, with music, book, and lyrics by O'Brien. The production is a tribute to the science fiction and horror B movies of the 1930s through to the early 1960s. Along with O'Brien, the film stars Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick and is narrated by Charles Gray, with cast members from the original Royal Court Theatre, Roxy Theatre, and Belasco Theatre productions, including Nell Campbell and Patricia Quinn.

<i>The Rocky Horror Show</i> 1973 musical by Richard OBrien

The Rocky Horror Show is a musical with music, lyrics and book by Richard O'Brien. A humorous tribute to the science fiction and horror B movies of the 1930s through to the early 1960s, the musical tells the story of a newly engaged couple getting caught in a storm and coming to the home of a mad transvestite scientist, Dr Frank-N-Furter, unveiling his new creation, Rocky, a sort of Frankenstein-style monster in the form of an artificially made, fully grown, physically perfect muscle man complete "with blond hair and a tan".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Hemmings</span> English actor and director (1941–2003)

David Edward Leslie Hemmings was an English actor and director. He is best remembered for his roles in British films and television programmes of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly his lead role as a trendy fashion photographer in the hugely successful avant-garde mystery film Blowup (1966), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Early in his career, Hemmings was a boy soprano appearing in operatic roles. In 1967, he co-founded the Hemdale Film Corporation. From the mid-1970s on, he worked mainly as a character actor and occasionally as director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek Martin</span> English actor (1933–)

Derek Martin is an English former actor. Beginning his career as a stuntman, he moved into acting and played many roles on UK television. One of his most widely known roles is Charlie Slater on the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 2000 to 2011, with brief appearances in 2013 and 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Biggins</span> British actor

Christopher Kenneth Biggins is an English actor and television presenter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Adams (British actor)</span> English actor

Jonathan Adams was an English television, film and theatre actor. He was also a visual artist whose works were exhibited throughout his life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed and Lorraine Warren</span> American paranormal investigators

Edward Warren Miney and Lorraine Rita Warren were American paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent cases of alleged hauntings. Edward was a self-taught and self-professed demonologist, author, and lecturer. Lorraine professed to be clairvoyant and a light trance medium who worked closely with her husband.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Fuest</span>

Robert Fuest was an English film director, screenwriter, and production designer who worked mostly in the horror, fantasy and suspense genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quentin Tarantino Film Festival</span> Defunct semi-annual film festival

The Quentin Tarantino Film Festival, or QT-Fest, was a semi-annual film and multimedia event held by the Austin Film Society in Austin, Texas and attended by film director Quentin Tarantino, where he screened a selection of his favorite films using prints he owns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armando Trovajoli</span> Italian composer

Armando Trovajoli was an Italian film composer and pianist with over 300 credits as composer and/or conductor, many of them jazz scores for exploitation films of the Commedia all'italiana genre. He collaborated with Vittorio De Sica on a number of projects, including one segment of Boccaccio '70. Trovajoli was also the author of several Italian musicals: among them, Rugantino and Aggiungi un posto a tavola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Cristofer</span> American actor and director

Michael Cristofer is an American actor, playwright and filmmaker. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play for The Shadow Box in 1977. From 2015 to 2019, he played the role of Phillip Price in the television series Mr. Robot.

John Dexter was an English theatre, opera and film director.

<i>Eskimo Nell</i> (film) 1975 film by Martin Campbell

Eskimo Nell, also known as The Ballad of Eskimo Nell and as The Sexy Saga of Naughty Nell and Big Dick, is a 1975 British sex comedy film directed by Martin Campbell and produced by Stanley Long. Though inspired by "The Ballad of Eskimo Nell", the movie owes little to the original bawdy song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Long</span>

Stanley A. Long was an English exploitation cinema and sexploitation filmmaker. He was also a driving force behind the VistaScreen stereoscopic (3D) photographic company. He was a writer, cinematographer, editor, and eventually, producer/director of low-budget exploitation movies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Sharp</span> British actor (1915–1984)

Dennis Anthony John Sharp was an English actor, writer and director.

David Toguri was an award-winning Japanese-Canadian choreographer, director and actor, based for most of his career in the UK. He died of cancer.

James Aubrey Tregidgo, known professionally as James Aubrey, was an English stage and screen actor. He trained for the stage at the Drama Centre London, some years after making his professional acting debut in a production of Isle of Children (1962) and his screen acting debut in the film adaptation of Lord of the Flies (1963). He later performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Veronica Doran is a British character actress who remains best known for her 18-month stint as Marion Willis in the ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. She appeared in the series from 1982 to 1983.

<i>The Haunted House of Horror</i> 1969 British film

The Haunted House of Horror, also titled Horror House and The Dark, is a 1969 British horror film directed by Michael Armstrong and starring Frankie Avalon and Jill Haworth as young adults looking for a thrill by spending the night in an old mansion in the English countryside. The film's tagline was "Behind its forbidden doors an evil secret hides!"

"Robbing the Cradle" is a level in the 2004 game Thief: Deadly Shadows, developed by Ion Storm. Unlike other levels in the game, it features a strong survival horror theme, in addition to the stealth gameplay typical of the Thief series. Players traverse an abandoned, haunted orphanage and mental asylum called the Shalebridge Cradle, while attempting to free the soul of a young girl from the building's captivity.