Herschell Gordon Lewis (born June 15, 1929, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA – died September 26, 2016, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA) was an American filmmaker, best known for creating the "splatter" subgenre of horror films.
For more than twenty years, he taught graduate-level courses in mass communications; currently he lectures at professional seminars worldwide.
Did most of the voice-overs in his films, including the theatrical trailers, because he did not want to pay any more actors to speak the lines.
Father of Robert Lewis.
Heads his own advertising and consulting firm, Communicomp, based in Plantation Florida. Writes a regular series of articles, "Copy That Sells", for Direct Marketing magazine, and is the copywriting columnist for Catalog Age.
(December 2002) On Holidays in New York City with his daughter Erica Lewis and ex-wife and friend Yvonne Gilbert.
Herschell Gordon Lewis, the horror filmmaker known as the "godfather of gore" - worked in advertising and financed most of his own films. Lewis pioneered the horror genre in the 1960s known as the "splatter film," which focused on gore and gruesomeness. Horror films created by Lewis included "Blood Feast," "Two Thousand Maniacs," "A Taste of Blood," "The wizard of Gore," "The Gruesome Twosome," "She-Devils on Wheels" and "Scum of the Earth!." Lewis died in his sleep on Monday morning, September 26, 2016, at age 87. John Waters, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and James Gunn are among filmmakers who were inspired by Lewis film work.
I see filmmaking as a business and pity anyone who regards it as an art,form.
[Joking about the making of Blood Feast (1963) ] It took me about,12 times longer to score that picture than to shoot it.
He left not knowing where he was going, he got there not knowing where he was, and he came back not knowing where he had been. But history books will point out Columbus as the person who made the Americas available for exploitation. I guess I can make the same kind of ridiculous claim. .
