biography
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 15, 1926, Herschell Gordon Lewis moved to Chicago with his mother after his father's death in 1932. After earning a master's
degree in journalism at Northwestern in the early 1950s, Lewis took a position as a communications professor at Mississippi State and later left that career for a job
in radio. Eventually, he returned to Chicago where bought into a production company making TV commercials. Lewis produced his first feature, The Prime Time (1960; with Karen Black). which is the debut of actress Karen Black.
He directed his first film, the exploitation flick Living Venus (1960; with William Kerwin and Harvey Korman) with actors William Kerwin and Harvey Korman, both of whom Lewis used in an industrial
film he had produced the year before titled Carving Magic (1959). Some of Lewis' early films were nudies, tame by today's standards but risque in
the early 1960s. The nudies shot and produced by Lewis include The Adventures of Lucky Pierre (1961; with William Kerwin), Daughter of the Sun (1962; with
Jerome Eden), and Boin-n-g (1963; with William Kerwin), all of which were shot at nudist camps. As restrictions on nudity in films eased in the early 1960s, Lewis's nudies
fell out of favor, and he needed a new genre.Lewis moved to South Florida in in the early 1960s, which is where he made some of his best-known films. Lewis's gore trilogy begins with Blood Feast (1963; with William Kerwin, Connie Mason, and Mal Arnold), long recognized as the first slasher film and is incredibly gory even by today's standards. Legend has it that Lewis came up with the idea for Blood Feast after he mixed a gallon of stage blood for a previous film and used only a couple of teaspoons of the mixture. Not wanting to waste the entire gallon, he came up with the idea for the film. Actors William Kerwin and Connie Mason, the stars of the film, married shortly after production wrapped. The second film in the trilogy, Two Thousand Maniacs (1964; with William Kerwin, Connie Mason, and Jerome Eden) was filmed in Kissimmee-St.Cloud Florida in 1964 for a budget rumored to hover around the $60,000 mark. The clever story involves a sleepy southern town in which all the residents were murdered by Union soldiers during the Civil War. One hundred years later, the citizens rise from the ashes to exact revenge on a group of six northerners who are vacationing in the south. The third and final film of the gore trilogy, Color Me Blood Red (1965; with Gordon Oas-Heim, Candi Conder, and Jerome Eden), was shot in Sarasota for a budget of about $50,000. After its release, Lewis and production partner David Friedman parted ways. Lewis continued making films into the early 1970s, with A Taste of Blood (1967; with Elizabeth Lee and Bill Rogers) being his best film. After returning to the Chicago area, he wrapped his film career with The Gore Gore Girls (1972; with Henny Youngman). |
the films of herschell gordon lewisBlood Feast (1963)  
LEFT: Mal Arnold stars as Fuad Ramses. CENTER: With Scott H. Harris and William Kerwin. Kerwin was the most successful of Herschell Gordon Lewis's regular cast members. RIGHT: Blood Feast star Connie Mason in a 1963 Playboy spread. Mason was Playboy's Playmate of the Month for June 1963Two Thousand Maniacs (1964) 
LEFT: Shelby Livingston is hacked up in a scene from Two Thousand Maniacs. RIGHT: Connie Mason stars as Terry AdamsColor Me Blood Red (1965) 
Filmed in Sarasota, Florida, in early 1965, Color Me Blood Red completes the trilogy of Lewis and Friedman's splatter films. LEFT: Gordon Oas-Heim murders girlfriend Elyn Warner. RIGHT: Gordon Oas-Heim cons gullible Candi Conder into posing for himMonster a Go-Go (1965)
A 1965 advertisement for Monster A Go-Go. Most of the film was shot by director Bill Rebane in 1961, but he ran out of funds. Lewis bought the film and shot a few new scenes in late 1964 in Chicago. Monster A Go-Go was once featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000Something Weird (1967)
Tony McCabe, the star of Something Weird, passed away just one year after the film was releasedThe Wizard of Gore (1970) 
LEFT: Advertisement for The Wizard of Gore. Shot in Chicago in late 1968, the so-bad-it's-good film was not released until 1970. RIGHT: Ray Sager as Montag the Magnificentlater yearsAfter directing more than 40 films in twelve years, Lewis left filmmaking in 1972. The decline of horror films, combined with the death of exploitation flicks via the release of the X-rated feature Deep Throat, spelled the end of his film career. Despite a fraud conviction in the mid 1970s that saw him spend about three years in prison, Lewis went on to be quite successful as a direct marketing wizard, college lecturer, and writer. He returned to directing in 2002 with the release of the comedy horror films Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat (2002) and The Uh-Oh Show (2009). Sadly, Herschell Gordon Lewis passed away on September 26, 2016, at the age of 90. He was survived by his third wife, Margot, and four daughters, two sons, and grandchildren. |
filmographyThis is a listing of films that Lewis has directed:
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herschell gordon lewis trailers now showingherschell gordon lewis television appearancesherschell gordon lewis film now showing |
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This page premiered February 25, 2000.
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