{"id":561283,"date":"2023-03-09T04:16:45","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T01:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/bert-i-gordon-director-of-cult-and-cheap-sci-fi-classics-dies-at-100\/"},"modified":"2023-03-09T04:16:45","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T01:16:45","slug":"bert-i-gordon-director-of-cult-and-cheap-sci-fi-classics-dies-at-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/bert-i-gordon-director-of-cult-and-cheap-sci-fi-classics-dies-at-100\/","title":{"rendered":"#Bert I. Gordon, Director of Cult (and Cheap) Sci-Fi Classics, Dies at 100"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a411860802f4\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a411860802f4\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/bert-i-gordon-director-of-cult-and-cheap-sci-fi-classics-dies-at-100\/#Bert_I_Gordon_Director_of_Cult_and_Cheap_Sci-Fi_Classics_Dies_at_100\" >Bert I. Gordon, Director of Cult (and Cheap) Sci-Fi Classics, Dies at 100<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Bert_I_Gordon_Director_of_Cult_and_Cheap_Sci-Fi_Classics_Dies_at_100\"><\/span>Bert I. Gordon, Director of Cult (and Cheap) Sci-Fi Classics, Dies at 100<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Bert I. Gordon, the sci-fi director who aimed to terrify drive-in denizens of the 1950s and \u201960s with low-budget films featuring colossal creatures, shrinking humans and radioactive monsters, has died. He was 100.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Gordon died Wednesday in Los Angeles of complications from a fall in his Beverly Hills home, his daughter Patricia Gordon told <em>The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Highlights (lowlights?) on his B-movie r\u00e9sum\u00e9 include\u00a0<em>The Cyclops\u00a0<\/em>(1957),\u00a0<em>The Amazing Colossal Man <\/em>(1957), <em>Beginning of the End<\/em>\u00a0(1957),\u00a0<em>Earth vs. the Spider <\/em>(1958), <em>Attack of the Puppet People\u00a0<\/em>(1958), <em>Tormented\u00a0<\/em>(1960),\u00a0<em>The Boy and the Pirates\u00a0<\/em>(1960) and\u00a0<em>Picture Mommy Dead\u00a0<\/em>(1966).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    In the \u201970s, Gordon directed Vince Edwards and Chuck Connors in\u00a0<em>The Police Connection\u00a0<\/em>(1973) and wrote and directed\u00a0<em>How to Succeed With Sex <\/em>(1970), <em>Necromancy\u00a0<\/em>(1972),\u00a0<em>The Food of the Gods\u00a0<\/em>(1976) and, starring Joan Collins in the muck,\u00a0<em>Empire of the Ants\u00a0<\/em>(1977).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Perhaps as a way to keep costs down, Gordon\u2019s films often were family affairs: His late wife, Flora, assisted him on the low-grade special effects, and their late daughter, Susan, acted in four of his features.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    The budgets for his <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">movies<\/a> were minuscule, yet Gordon was nicknamed \u201cMister B.I.G.\u201d (also his initials) and able to get prominent actors to work for him. Some were on the downside of their careers, others on the way up.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Don Ameche, Martha Hyer and Zsa Zsa Gabor manipulated minds in\u00a0<em>Picture Mommy Dead\u00a0<\/em>(Hedy Lamarr had dropped out after a shoplifting arrest); Peter Graves battled giant grasshoppers in\u00a0<em>Beginning of the End<\/em>; Basil Rathbone practiced mean wizardry in 1962\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Magic Sword<\/em>; and youngsters Beau Bridges and Ron Howard handled mysterious goo in 1965\u2019s\u00a0<em>Village of the Giants<\/em>, which featured a performance by The Beau Brummels.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Gordon\u2019s most noteworthy casting was surely Orson Welles, who has a penchant for the occult in the horror flick\u00a0<em>Necromancy<\/em>. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Warned about Welles\u2019 habit of thumbing his nose at directors and insistence on working only from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Gordon said he provided the legend with a personal chef, a dressing room on a patio and a refrigerator filled with Chicago ribs. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    \u201cIt was easy to figure out that he wanted his ego [stroked] \u2026 his whole thing was that he was an important man, and he\u00a0<em>was\u00a0<\/em>an important man,\u201d Gordon <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tapatalk.com\/groups\/mhvf\/spending-a-little-time-with-mr-b-i-g-t101.html\">recalled<\/a> in 2003. \u201cI treated him like that, and there was no problem with the rest of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Gordon also was told never to ask Welles about\u00a0<em>Citizen Kane<\/em>. \u201cDon\u2019t say it\u2019s your favorite film. Don\u2019t ask him how it was with \u2026 just don\u2019t mention it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <em>The Amazing Colossal Man\u00a0<\/em>played off the fear of nuclear proliferation. It featured Glenn Langan as Col. Glenn Manning, who attempts to rescue a downed pilot near a plutonium bomb test site when an explosion occurs. Radiation exposure turns him into a bald, 70-foot menace who terrorizes Las Vegas.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Gordon made a sequel,\u00a0<em>War of the Colossal Beast<\/em>, the following year. Manning somehow survived a fall off Hoover Dam at the end of the first film to return, with the giant now being portrayed by\u00a0<em>Cyclops\u00a0<\/em>star Duncan \u201cDean\u201d Parkin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    All this was fodder for the hosts of the comedy series\u00a0<em>Mystery <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science<\/a> Theater 3000<\/em>, which brought the Gordon canon to a new audience. \u201cI watched it one time, and I didn\u2019t like them making fun of [his work],\u201d he said. \u201cI take my films very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Bert Ira Gordon was born on Sept. 24, 1922, in Welles\u2019 hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin. His love of special effects could be traced to the first film camera he was given when he was 9.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    \u201cI would do tricks with it,\u201d he explained, \u201clike have someone standing in the scene and then stop the camera and have them walk out so they\u2019d \u2018pop\u2019 off. Or I\u2019d do \u2018ghost\u2019 things, where I\u2019d wind the film back in the darkroom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Gordon graduated from the University of Wisconsin, then made TV commercials before producing and shooting the 1954 adventure\u00a0<em>Serpent Island<\/em>, starring Sonny Tufts as a treasure hunter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    He followed that with\u00a0<em>King Dinosaur\u00a0<\/em>(1955), which he wrote and directed on a budget of $18,000. His special effects combined stock footage, rear projection and an iguana \u2014 meant to be the dinosaur in the title \u2014 that wouldn\u2019t budge, no matter what Gordon did.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    \u201cFinally, I went to the Beverly Hills library and looked up Gila monsters and lizards,\u201d he <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fy2rmwxTS4o&amp;t=\">remembered<\/a> in 2014, \u201cand it said that they live in the desert, and they don\u2019t move unless the temperature is over 110.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    The next day, he brought heavy heat lamps to the set, and those brought the herbivore\u00a0to life. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Gordon\u2019s flicks were always accompanied by screaming taglines: \u201cFifty tons of creeping black horror!\u201d was how\u00a0<em>Earth vs. the Spider\u00a0<\/em>was promoted. The film included a scene of a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PEUvhqGjubg\">giant tarantula awakened<\/a> by rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    In\u00a0<em>Attack of the Puppet People\u00a0<\/em>(\u201cDoll dwarfs versus the crushing giant beasts!\u201d), John Hoyt plays a lonely puppet master who shrinks people to one-sixth of their original size. A character played by June Kenney (also in\u00a0<em>Earth vs. the Spider<\/em>) <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>lies for a job in his factory after his previous secretary mysteriously vanishes (you can guess what happened to her).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Hoyt has more than 250 credits listed on IMDb \u2014 including\u00a0<em>Blackboard Jungle<\/em>, <em>Spartacus <\/em>and <em>Cleopatra\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 yet for him, nothing could top\u00a0<em>Attack of the Puppet People<\/em>, \u201cbecause he felt a sensitivity, an emotion he could identify with,\u201d Gordon noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    In 2011, Gordon received a career achievement award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy &amp; Horror Films. He published his autobiography,\u00a0<em>The Amazing Colossal Worlds of Mr. B.I.G<\/em>., a year later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    And at age 93, he showed he wasn\u2019t through yet with the release of\u00a0<em>Secrets of a Psychopath\u00a0<\/em>(2015), his first film in 26 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    He was married to Flora for more than 30 years until their divorce in 1979. She died in 2016 at age 90. Susan Gordon, who also appeared in the 1959 Danny Kaye movie\u00a0<em>The Five Pennies\u00a0<\/em>and on episodes of\u00a0<em>The Twilight Zone\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>My Three Sons<\/em>, was 62 when she succumbed to cancer in 2011.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    In addition to his daughter Patricia, he is survived by his wife, Eva; two other daughters, Christina and Carol; six grandchildren; and 19 great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/plain\" class=\"optanon-category-C0004\">\n!function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\nif (f.fbq) return;\nn = f.fbq = function() {n.callMethod ? n.callMethod.apply(n, arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments);};\nif (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n;\nn.push = n;\nn.loaded = !0;\nn.version = '2.0';\nn.queue = [];\nt = b.createElement(e);\nt.async = !0;\nt.src = v;\ns = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\ns.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s);\n}(window, document, 'script', 'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\nfbq('init', '352999048212581');\nfbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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Gordon, Director of Cult (and Cheap) Sci-Fi Classics, Dies at 100 Bert I. Gordon, the sci-fi director who aimed to terrify drive-in denizens of the 1950s and \u201960s with low-budget films featuring colossal creatures, shrinking humans and radioactive monsters, has died. He was 100.\u00a0 Gordon died Wednesday in Los Angeles of complications from&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":561284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/bert_i._gordon.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[137271,5200,16220],"class_list":["post-561283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-joan-collins","tag-obituaries","tag-ron-howard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}