Phil Tucker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Phil Tucker (22 May 1927 – 30 November 1985) was an American film director, writer, producer, and editor. While Tucker directed his first six feature films in the span of two years (while still in his mid-twenties), he is best known for his first film, the science fiction B movie Robot Monster, often considered an example of "so bad it's good" film-making in the Ed Wood vein, and for the Lenny Bruce movie Dance Hall Racket.

It's rumored that a 1953 suicide attempt took place in response to the poor reception of Robot Monster. According to Keep Watching The Skies! by Bill Warren, his attempted suicide was actually fueled by depression and a dispute with the film's distributor, who had allegedly refused to pay Tucker his contracted percentage of the film's profits. There are further claims that after 1955, Tucker was blacklisted within the film industry, though he did go on to direct a number of other productions, including 1960's The Cape Canaveral Monsters. Year prior, Tucker directed Lenny Bruce and Bruce's wife Honey Harlow in 1953's Dance Hall Racket.

By the 1970s Tucker had established himself as a formidable film editor, finally escaping the stigma of his early directorial work. He contributed to such well-known films as Orca and the 1976 remake of King Kong, and remained in post-production throughout the rest of his career.

In addition to his love of film, Tucker had an avid interest in all things mechanical. He invented a hot air engine known as the Surge Turbine for which he was granted a US patent. Tucker built a prototype of the engine which he tried, unsuccessfully, to sell to the automobile industry as a more efficient alternative to the traditional internal combustion engine.

Filmography

Year	Film	Director	Producer	Writer	Editor
1953	Robot Monster	N	N
1953	Dance Hall Racket	N
1954	Tia Juana After Midnite	N
	Dream Follies	N
	Baghdad After Midnight	N
1955	Broadway Jungle	N	N	N
1960	The Cape Canaveral Monsters	N		N
1960	Kiss Me Baby				N
1965	Chained Girls	N
1976	Death Riders		N
1980	The Nude Bomb				N
1985	Out of Control				N

External links

Phil Tucker at the Internet Movie Database

Authority control	VIAF: 41444557

Persondata
Name	Tucker, Phil
Alternative names
Short description	American film director
Date of birth	22 May 1927
Place of birth
Date of death	30 November 1985
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.