Arthur Marks

Birthday: 2 August 1927, Los Angeles, California, USA

Birth Name: Arthur Ronald Marks

Writer / director / producer Arthur Marks was born on August 2, 1927, in Los Angeles, CA. His grandparents acted in silent pictures and his father, Dave Marks, was an assistant director and production manager at MGM whose credits include The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Easter Parade (1948).Arthur began his film career as a young boy working as both an extra and bit actor in movies in the 1930s. He attended the University of Southern California and got a job working in the production department at MGM. However, it was in the 1950s that his career really took off: he was an assistant director for the TV shows Broken Arrow (1956), The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955) and Treasury Men in Action (1950) and worked on the immensely popular Perry Mason (1957) TV series as both a producer and director. He eventually began directing enjoyably trashy low-budget drive-in exploitation features in the 1970s; he made his theatrical film debut with the 1970 movie Togetherness (1970). He truly hit his stride, though, with several hugely entertaining blaxploitation outings: the rousing crime thriller Detroit 9000 (1973) (this particular picture was re-released in theaters in 1998 by Quentin Tarantino), the delightfully breezy Pam Grier vehicle Friday Foster (1975), the bang-up Fred Williamson action flick Bucktown (1975), the atmospheric horror winner J.D.'s Revenge (1976) and the amusingly goofy comedy The Monkey Hu$tle (1976). His other films as director include the gritty film noir Bonnie's Kids (1972), the sleazy serial killer opus The Roommates (1973) and the silly soft-core romp Class of '74 (1972). In addition, he served as production manager on The Centerfold Girls (1974) and Wonder Women (1973). He often produced the films he directed.Marks ran the independent outfit General Film Corp. in the 1970s, which picked up pictures like William Girdler's The Zebra Killer (1974) and the notorious cult exploitation gem The Candy Snatchers (1973) for theatrical distribution. Outside of his movie work, he has directed episodes of such TV shows as The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), Starsky and Hutch (1975) and I Spy (1965)He and his wife Phyllis Marie Lehman have four children; his sons Beau Marks and Paul Marks are both successful film and television producers. fields of film and television. Hide

[on his blaxploitation movies] I believe that good filmmaking was what got all these movies made and Show more [on his blaxploitation movies] I believe that good filmmaking was what got all these movies made and good filmmaking is what drew the audiences. They were attracted by good films and I still think that good films make audiences come to theaters. I don't think there has ever been a change. Bad films will drive audiences away. You can sell them with an idea of Black, but once they're in there, what happens? Do you play a second week and drop off 50 percent and never get a third week? That wasn't my aim. My aim was to make a good picture. That was the key, to make a picture as good as you know how. Hide

[on working for Harry Cohn at Columbia] Harry Cohn was a tough son of a bitch. He was enormous. He l Show more [on working for Harry Cohn at Columbia] Harry Cohn was a tough son of a bitch. He was enormous. He loved every woman he ever saw--and he had a bedroom in back of his office! He shacked up with half the studio girls under contract. If you were on his shit list, you were gone. You were gone in a day. For any reason. If you crossed his executives in the wrong way you were gone. He ran it with an iron fist. It was not a lovable place, Columbia. Hide

[on getting his first assistant director job at Columbia] I tried very hard to get an appointment at Show more [on getting his first assistant director job at Columbia] I tried very hard to get an appointment at Columbia. Week after week after week. It took six weeks. Finally I got a call to come in for an interview. I went into the palatial office of the head who hired the assistant directors [Jack Fier]. He looks at me. He doesn't say a word. Suddenly he lays into me like I'm the lowest fucking ladybird on the pole. He says, "What kind of an assistant director are you gonna be if it takes you six weeks to get in here!? You're no goddamn good! Who wants you?" I said, "Wait a minute!" I tried to defend myself. He said, "Get the hell out of here." That's the God's truth! That night I got a call from the production department to go to work at Columbia. It was weird, I tell you. Hide

Arthur Marks's FILMOGRAPHY

All as Actor (12) as Director (1) as Creator (1)

Friday Foster