Sig Shore

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sig Shore (May 13, 1919 - August 17, 2006) was an American film director and producer. His 1972 film Superfly is considered one of the first "blaxploitation" films.

Shore was born in Harlem, New York and grew up in the Bronx. He attended George Washington University on a basketball scholarship, but left school during World War II to serve in the United States Army Air Force.

After the war he worked in advertising. Shore got his start in the film industry importing dubbed foreign films. One of these films, Ilya Muromets (retitled The Sword and the Dragon), was mocked in a 1994 episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

Shore's biggest hit was 1972's Superfly, directed by Gordon Parks. Filmed on a budget of only US$300,000, it later made over US$30,000,000, and helped spawn the blaxploitation craze of the 1970s. Shore directed as well as produced the less-succesful 1990 sequel, The Return of Superfly.

Shore spent his last years in Stamford, Connecticut. He died from pulmonary complications and respiratory failure due to chronic pneumonia.