Posted on 12/04/2005 10:11:58 AM PST by NormsRevenge
MORENO VALLEY, Calif. - Herbert L. Strock, a television producer and director who directed such B-movies as "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein," "How to Make a Monster" and "The Crawling Hand," has died. He was 87.
Strock died Wednesday of heart failure at Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley following a car accident, according to his daughter, Leslie Mitchner.
In a television career that began in the 1940s, Strock worked on series including "Highway Patrol," "Sky King," "Sea Hunt," "Maverick" and "77 Sunset Strip."
His creature features included "Blood of Dracula" and "Gog," shot in 3-D.
"He was just a real old-time type of get-it-down Hollywood moviemaker, who'd just go in knowing what needed to be done and very efficiently handling everything," said Tom Weaver, a horror and science fiction film expert who interviewed Strock for Fangoria magazine.
The Boston-born Strock moved with his family to Los Angeles when he was 13. By 17, while a student at Beverly Hills High School, he became the director of gossip columnist Jimmy Fidler's Hollywood segments for Fox Movietone News.
Struck graduated in 1941 from USC, where he studied journalism and film. He served in the Army's Ordnance Motion Picture Division before becoming an assistant editor on the 1944 film "Gaslight" for MGM.
Besides his daughter Leslie, he is survived by his wife of 64 years, Geraldine; daughters Candice Dell Strock and Genoa Dodd; and two grandsons.
A private memorial service was planned.
Who could forget the Crawling Hand?
Was that a Quinn Martin production ?
I don't know. Was the Crawling Eye?
wow--only at FR would somebody mention "the crawling eye"! a truly great movie!
It's a classic!
Forrest Tuckers's finest.
Sounds like he worked at AIP films with Samuel Z. Arkoff. And that's just from the handful of titles I saw in the article....
Surprised there was anyone around from that era except for Roger Corman.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0834744/
He also directed the I Led 3 Lives tv series.
So much for ever seeing a boxed DVD set of the whole series with commentary about commie spies infiltrating American life. With plots that are pretty much in line with the American Left today.
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