30 Facts About Samuel Fuller

Samuel Michael Fuller was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, actor, and World War II veteran known for directing low-budget genre movies with controversial themes, often made outside the conventional studio system.

Samuel Fuller would continue to direct several other Westerns and war thrillers throughout the 1950s.

Samuel Fuller shifted from Westerns and war movies in the 1960s with his low-budget thriller Shock Corridor in 1963, followed by the neo-noir The Naked Kiss.

Samuel Fuller was inactive in filmmaking for most of the 1970s, before writing and directing the semi-autobiographical war epic The Big Red One, and the drama White Dog, whose screenplay he co-wrote with Curtis Hanson.

Samuel Michael Fuller was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, of Jewish parents, Rebecca and Benjamin Fuller.

Samuel Fuller's father died in 1923 when Samuel was 11.

Samuel Fuller became a crime reporter in New York City at age 17, working for the New York Evening Graphic.

Samuel Fuller wrote pulp novels, including The Dark Page, which was later adapted into the 1952 movie Scandal Sheet.

Samuel Fuller was assigned as an infantryman to the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, and saw heavy fighting.

Samuel Fuller was involved in landings in Africa, Sicily, and Normandy, and saw action in Belgium and Czechoslovakia.

Samuel Fuller used his wartime experiences as material in his films, especially in The Big Red One, the nickname for the 1st Infantry Division.

Samuel Fuller wrote many screenplays throughout his career, such as Gangs of the Waterfront in 1945.

Samuel Fuller agreed to write them if he would be allowed to direct them, as well, with no extra fee.

The studio wanted a more prominent star such as John Wayne, but Samuel Fuller was adamant that Evans remain because he was impressed by his fellow veteran's authentic portrayal of a soldier.

Samuel Fuller followed this with Pickup on South Street, a film noir starring Richard Widmark, which became one of his best-known films.

Samuel Fuller unsuccessfully asked the Directors Guild to remove his name from the credits of Shark.

Samuel Fuller returned in 1980 with the epic The Big Red One, the semiautobiographical story of a platoon of soldiers and their harrowing experiences during World War II.

Samuel Fuller readily agreed to work on the film, having focused much of his career on racial issues.

Samuel Fuller used the film as a platform to deliver an anti-racist message through the film's examination of the question of whether racism is a treatable problem or an incurable disease.

Samuel Fuller was not told of these discussions, nor given the notes until two weeks before filming was slated to conclude.

Samuel Fuller reportedly had both representatives banned from the set afterwards, though he did integrate some of the suggested changes into the film.

Samuel Fuller directed two theatrical French films, Les Voleurs de la nuit in 1984 and Street of No Return in 1989.

Samuel Fuller directed his last film, The Madonna and the Dragon, in 1990, and he wrote his last screenplay, Girls in Prison, in 1994.

Samuel Fuller plays a film director in Dennis Hopper's ill-fated The Last Movie ; an Army colonel in Steven Spielberg's 1941 ; a war correspondent in his film The Big Red One, a talent agent in his film White Dog, and a cameraman in Wim Wenders' The State of Things.

Samuel Fuller portrays an American gangster in two films set in Germany: The American Friend by Wenders and Helsinki Napoli All Night Long by Mika Kaurismaki.

Samuel Fuller's work has been described as primitive by Luc Moullet and by the influential American critics Manny Farber and Andrew Sarris.

Samuel Fuller was known for using intense close-ups, off-centered framings, and shock editing in many of his films, which were often about men facing death in combat.

Samuel Fuller welcomed the new-found esteem, appearing in films of other directors and associating himself with younger filmmakers.

The moving image collection of Samuel Fuller is housed at the Academy Film Archive.

The archive has preserved several of Samuel Fuller's films, including The Crimson Kimono, Underworld USA, and Pickup on South Street.