Samuel Fuller

Born: 1912-08-12

Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997) was an American screenwriter, novelist and film director known for low-budget genre movies with controversial themes. He was born Samuel Michael Fuller in Worcester, Massachusetts, the son of Benjamin Rabinovitch, a Jewish immigrant  from Russia, and Rebecca Baum, a Jewish immigrant from Poland. After immigrating to America, the family's surname was changed from Rabinovitch to "Fuller" possibly by inspiration of a Doctor who arrived in America on the Mayflower.  At the age of 12, he began working in journalism  as a newspaper  copyboy. He became a crime reporter  in New York City at age 17, working for the New York Evening Graphic. He broke the story of Jeanne Eagels' death.  He wrote pulp novels and screenplays  from the mid-1930s onwards. Fuller also became a screenplay  ghostwriter  but would never tell interviewers which screenplays that he ghost-wrote explaining "that's what a ghost writer is for". During World War II, Fuller joined the United States Army infantry. He was assigned to the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, and saw heavy fighting. He was involved in landings in Africa, Sicily, and Normandy  and also saw action in Belgium and Czechoslovakia. In 1945 he was present at the liberation of the German concentration camp at Falkenau  and shot 16 mm footage which was used later in the documentary Falkenau: The Impossible. For his service, he was awarded the Bronze Star, the Silver Star, and the Purple Heart.  Fuller used his wartime experiences as material in his films, especially in The Big Red One (1980), a nickname of the 1st Infantry Division. After his controversial film "White Dog" was shelved by Paramount pictures, Fuller moved to France, and never directed another American film. Fuller eventually returned to America. He died of natural causes in his California home. In November 1997, the Directors Guild held a three hour memorial in his honor, hosted by Curtis Hanson, his long time friend and co-writer on White Dog. He was survived by his wife Christa and daughter Samantha.


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1941

as Interceptor Commander
Released: 1979-12-14

In the days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, panic grips California, where a military officer...

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The Big Red One

as War Correspondent (uncredited)
Released: 1980-01-22

A veteran sergeant of World War I leads a squad in World War II, always in the company of the...

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The American Friend

as The American
Released: 1977-06-24

Tom Ripley, an American who deals in forged art, is slighted at an auction in Hamburg by picture...

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The Last Movie

as Sam
Released: 1971-09-29

After a film production wraps in Peru, an American wrangler decides to stay behind, witnessing...

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A Return to Salem's Lot

as Van Meer
Released: 1987-09-11

Joe Weber is an anthropologist who takes his son on a trip to the New England town of Salem's...

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The State of Things

as Joe
Released: 1982-03-22

On location in Portugal, a film crew runs out of film while making their own version of Roger...

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White Dog

as Charlie Felton
Released: 1982-07-07

A trainer attempts to retrain a vicious dog that’s been raised to kill black people.

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Pierrot le Fou

as Samuel Fuller (uncredited)
Released: 1965-11-05

Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with...

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La Vie de Bohème

as Gassot
Released: 1992-02-27

Three penniless artists become friends in modern-day Paris: Rodolfo, an Albanian painter with no...

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Hammett

as Old Man in Pool Hall
Released: 1982-06-09

Chinatown, San Francisco, 1928. Former private detective Dashiell Hammett, a compulsive drinker...

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The End of Violence

as Louis
Released: 1997-09-12

Mike Max is a Hollywood producer who became powerful and rich thanks to brutal and bloody action...

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Helsinki Napoli All Night Long

as Boss
Released: 1987-11-13

Alex is a Finnish taxi driver in Berlin. One evening pits two men feel comfortable in his taxi...

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Slapstick of Another Kind

as Colonel Sharp
Released: 1982-12-09

A rich, beautiful couple give birth to deformed alien twins who, when their heads are together,...

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The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera

as Self
Released: 1996-06-28

In a documentary about Samuel Fuller, the spectator gets different impressions about the...

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House of Bamboo

as Japanese policeman (uncredited)
Released: 1955-07-01

Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson,...

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Scott Joplin

as Impresario
Released: 1977-02-11

The life story of Scott Joplin and how he became the greatest ragtime composer of all time.

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Cinématon

as N°602
Released: 1978-12-20

Cinématon is a 156-hour long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It was the...

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Golem, l'esprit de l'exil

as Elimelek
Released: 1992-09-24

An allegory of the Golem, a Jewish mythical creature personifying displacement and exile, this...

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Sodankylä Forever

as Self
Released: 2010-08-05

The Midnight Sun Film Festival is held every June in the Finnish village of Sodankylä beyond the...

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Sam Fuller & the Big Red One

as Himself
Released: 1984-02-04

A documentary shot during the production of Samuel Fuller's film The Big Red One.

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The Big Red One : The Reconstruction

as War Correspondent (uncredited)
Released: 2005-05-03

A re-working, re-editing, and restructuring of Sam Fuller's The Big Red One bringing it closer...

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Street of No Return

as Police Commissioner
Released: 1989-05-17

A rock star-turned-bum, his vocal chords severed at the height of his career for the love of a...

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The Madonna and the Dragon

as Chef de bureau Newsweek
Released: 1990-09-01

Exposé of two news photographers covering the People's Revolution in the Philippines.

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Somebody to Love

as Sam Silverman
Released: 1994-09-27

Mercedes is a taxi dancer who wants to be an actress. She's involved with the married Harry, who...

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A Fuller Life

as Self
Released: 2013-08-28

Friends and admirers of iconoclastic film director Sam Fuller read from his memoirs in this...

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Mer de Chine: Le pays pour mémoire

as Le capitaine américain
Released: 1988-09-08

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Edge of Outside

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 2006-06-11

An hour-long documentary designed to celebrate the spirit of the independent filmmaker from D.W....

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The Young Nurses

as Doc Haskell
Released: 1973-03-01

Sexy young nurses apply special therapy in their daily rounds, as they work against a drug ring...

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Carmel

as uncredited
Released: 2009-07-12

Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitaï offers a look impressionist long history of armed conflict in...

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The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller

as Self
Released: 2002-07-02

Samuel Fuller discusses his career as a filmmaker, illustrated by plenty of clips.

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Scene Missing

as Self
Released: 2012-01-01

The unfinished documentary about the making of Dennis Hopper's mostly unseen feature film The...

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Motion and Emotion: The Films of Wim Wenders

as Self
Released: 1990-04-25

Though very polite and British, this feature-length documentary about German filmmaker Wim...

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Sons

as Father
Released: 1990-01-01

A trio of stepbrothers accompany their paralysed father on a jaunt to Normandy where the old boy...

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Anything for John

as Self
Released: 1993-09-06

An intimate portrait of actor-writer-director John Cassavetes and a loving tribute to his genius...

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Filmmakers in Action

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 2006-09-15

What is the state of cinema and what being a filmmaker means? What are the measures taken to...

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Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made

as Self
Released: 1994-03-25

In 1993, Sam Fuller takes Jim Jarmusch on a trip into Brazil's Mato Grosso, up the River...

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The Real Glory: Reconstructing 'The Big Red One'

as Himself (archive footage)
Released: 2005-05-03

Documentary about the efforts to reconstruct Sam Fuller's The Big Red One closer to the film...

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Thieves After Dark

as Zoltan
Released: 1984-02-27

A crime story set in Paris about a Bonnie-and-Clyde couple -- how they got together and how they...

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Falkenau, the Impossible

as Samuel Fuller
Released: 1988-10-05

Documentary stems from 1945, when infantryman Sam Fuller, member of the U.S. Army's "Big Red...

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Brigitte and Brigitte

as Self
Released: 1966-12-17

Episodes in the lives of two country girls at school in Paris and their opinions.

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The Bleeding Star

as uncredited
Released: 1987-01-01

An Englishman arrives in a remote French town near the coast to collect his broken-down car....

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Nuits transparentes

as uncredited
Released: 2011-04-14

Strolling through France (Roanne, Nice and Carcassonne) with some excursions abroad (Munich,...

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Shock Corridor

as himself
Released: 1992-01-01

Short 35mm experimental film featuring Sam Fuller.

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Where Is Musette?

as self
Released: 1992-01-01

Documentary filmed on-set during the making of Aki Kaurismaki's "La vie de Boheme"

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Les Rendez-vous du dimanche

as Self
First aired: 1975-01-12

A talk show presented by Michel Drucker

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David Lansky

as uncredited
First aired: 1989-04-30

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