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Samuel Fuller
Life Time
12 August 1912 - 30 October 1997
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Samuel Michael Fuller b>Samuel Fuller was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. At the age of 12, he became a copywriter for the New York Journal and a 17th crime reporter for the Sun San Diego. During the Great Depression, he roamed the country on freight trains. At the same time, he began writing short stories and in 1935 his first tabloid novel, Burn Baby Gore, was published.
In 1936, he became a screenwriter collaborating with James Cruz on Gangs of New York (1938), among other films. During
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Samuel Michael Fuller b>Samuel Fuller was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. At the age of 12, he became a copywriter for the New York Journal and a 17th crime reporter for the Sun San Diego. During the Great Depression, he roamed the country on freight trains. At the same time, he began writing short stories and in 1935 his first tabloid novel, Burn Baby Gore, was published.
In 1936, he became a screenwriter collaborating with James Cruz on Gangs of New York (1938), among other films. During World War II, he fought in North Africa and Europe in the First Infantry Division and was awarded the Bronze Star Silver Star and Purple Heart. Returning to Hollywood, he made his first film as a director in 1949.
Fuller who writes most of his scripts and often produces his films has always been a controversial figure in American cinema. His paintings are mostly B-category action films, characterized by the directness and brutal violence he saw as a crime reporter, a vagabond and a soldier, and his characters are often corrupt and immoral. His crude political views have alienated critics from both the far left and the far right.
Forgetting politics, most critics agree that Fuller was an important life force in American cinema, a director with an interesting visual style who uses film as a dynamic medium of expression. Critic Andrew Sirris called him “a true American primitivist.” He is admired especially in France, where he now lives, and is considered one of the most influential post-war filmmakers. Retrospectives of his films often take place in Europe.
In the 1960s, Fuller directed several episodes for various American television series. After a long absence, he returned to the films The Big Red Unit (1980), which he had wanted to make since the mid-1950s. The film, set on the experience of his own combat experience in the First Infantry Division, was called by many masterpieces and one of the greatest American military dramas in the history of cinema. Fuller starred in Mad Piero (1965) and Brigitte and Brigitte (1966) and in the American films The Last Film (1971) and 1941 (1979).
Fuller starred in several European and American films as an actor or as himself. In 1967 he married actress Christa Lang. It was his second marriage.