Biography of Samuel Fuller: – Writer, screenwriter and American film director. Initiated as a journalist, he was noted for his action film, with a great narrative sense (Steel Casco, 1950, Corredor sin retorno, 1963, Death of a pigeon, 1973, Los ladrones de la noche, 1984, Calle sin retorno, 1989). He was also the author of the novels Battle royal (1984) and Pecos Bill and the Soho Kid (1986), among others.
Biography of Samuel Fuller
- Born:- 12 August 1912, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
- Died:- 30 October 1997, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States
- Spouse:- Christa Lang (m. 1967–1997), Martha Downes Fuller (m. ?–1959)
- Children:- Samantha Fuller
- Tv Shows:- Sodankylä Forever
After a harsh and deprived childhood, at fifteen he worked as a newspaper salesman and worked as an editorial assistant in the New York Journal. In 1929, he joined the New York Graphic as an editor, and soon joined the San Diego Sun editorial staff as a reporter for events and criminal matters.
Fuller then alternated his journalistic work with that of story writer and detective novels; among the most important titles of that era include Burn, Baby, Burn (1935), Test tube baby (1936) and The Dark Page (1944).
See Also: Biography of Irving Berlin
From 1936 he collaborated in many cinematographic scripts, especially of police theme. During World War II he was a war reporter; he fought in Africa and Europe and received several medals.
His experience on the front was reflected in a book later turned into the film Red One, division of shock (1980), often considered his masterpiece.
After the war he returned to Hollywood and directed his first film, Avengers (1949), in which he drew a dense portrait of Bob Ford, the man who killed Jesse James.
From its beginnings its filmography was composed by solid and relevant titles such as Casco de acero (1950) and Bayonetas caladas (1951), war films completely removed from the triumphalism of the time that emphasized the less heroic aspects of the war.
His thriller “Dangerous Hands” (1952), in which he recounted the story of a low-flying thief involuntarily implicated in a Cold War espionage plot, won him critical acclaim and certified his worth for action movies.
He was followed by other notable films such as Dangerous Hands (1952), The Bamboo House (1955), Yuma (1956) and Underwold USA (1960).
For Corredor no retorno (1963), a singular incursion into the world of psychiatry, his experience as a journalist earned him the impression of verismo to the story of a reporter who pretends to be mentally alienated to go to a psychiatric hospital and investigate the death of one of the patients.
The marginality appeared in films like a light in the underworld (1964), in which an old prostitute tries to rebuild her life in the children’s hospital of a small town.
Samuel Fuller’s narrative was enormously vigorous and dynamic from a cinematic point of view, but in the messages he tended to ambiguity or the absolute absence of answers, limiting himself to presenting different perspectives on controversial topics such as racism, violence, social marginalization or corruption of politics.
So it is not surprising that Fuller did not always move easily in the world of great studies and that at the beginning of the sixties he decided to found his own producer in order to obtain greater creative freedom.
The author’s always radical and individualistic attitude earned him a few criticisms and difficulties with the Hollywood industry, which would eventually close the door.
For the history of the cinema there remain the controversies of Casco de acero, for which he was described as communist, and La casa de bambú, which was labeled anti-American because the female star chooses as a Japanese couple and not an American.
The accusations of racism he received for The White Dog (1982), a film that was precisely an anti-racist argument, decided to go into exile in France, where he had previously collaborated with Jean Luc Godard in Pierrot le fou (1965).
While in his country renowned directors claimed for him a place of honor in the history of cinema, Fuller preferred, because of these disagreements, to participate as an actor in the foreign productions that were of interest to him.
He appeared in The Life of Bohemia, by Aki Kaurismaki; in Helsinki-Náploles: all in one night, by Mika Kaaurismaki; in Someone to Love and Sons, by Alexandre Rockwell, and in the film The End of the Violence (1982), by Wim Wenders, whose orders had already been placed in The American Friend (1977). In 1996 he was the protagonist of a biographical documentary titled the typewriter, the rifle and the camera of cinema, in reference to his three vital passions.
