Bert Ira Gordon (September 24, 1922 – March 8, 2023) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and

visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...

artist. He is best known for screenwriting and producing and/or directing

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and horror

B-movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

s such as '' King Dinosaur'' (1955), '' The Amazing Colossal Man'' (1957), '' Earth vs. the Spider'' (1958), '' Village of the Giants'' (1965), '' The Food of the Gods'' (1976), and '' Empire of the Ants'' (1977). Most of Gordon's work is in the idiom of giant monster films, for which he used rear-projection to create the special effects. He was nicknamed "Mr. B.I.G." by Forrest J Ackerman, a reference to both his initials and his films' tendency to feature super-sized creatures. The 20th Insect Fear Film Festival at UIUC in 2003 honored Gordon with a retrospective and showcase of his iconic films featuring giant insects. With at least ten titles focused on oversized bugs, Gordon was celebrated as the festival's special guest and received a plaque and certificate in recognition of his lasting contributions to the "big bug" genre.

Career

Gordon was born in

Kenosha, Wisconsin Kenosha () is a city in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Wisconsin, fourth-most populous city in Wisconsin, with a population of 99,986 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. S ...

, on September 24, 1922, the son of Sadeline (Barnett) and Charles Abraham Gordon. He began making home movies in

16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 mm and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ...

after his aunt gave him a camera for his 13th birthday. He dropped out of college to join the Army Air Forces in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After the war, he married and he and his wife began making television commercials. He later edited British feature films to fit half-hour time slots and became a production assistant on '' Racket Squad'' and camera man on '' Serpent Island'' (1954). In 1955, Gordon made his first feature, '' King Dinosaur'', followed by '' The Cyclops'' in 1957, which co-starred Lon Chaney Jr. and Gloria Talbot. In 1957, he began his prolific association with

American International Pictures American International Pictures, LLC (AIP or American International Productions) is an American film production company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution c ...

, beginning with '' The Amazing Colossal Man'' and its 1958 sequel, '' War of the Colossal Beast''. AIP distributed some of his other late-50s opuses, such as '' Earth vs the Spider'', '' Beginning of the End'' (featuring

Peter Graves Peter Graves (born Peter Duesler Aurness; March 18, 1926 – March 14, 2010) was an American actor who portrayed Jim Phelps in the television series ''Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series), Mission: Impossible'' from 1967 to 1973 and in its reviv ...

), and '' Attack of the Puppet People''. In October 1960 Gordon sued AIP for fraud over four films they made together. After filming '' Tormented'' (1960), he wrote, produced and directed '' The Boy and the Pirates'', starring active and popular child star of the time Charles Herbert and Gordon's own daughter, Susan Gordon (who died in 2011 from thyroid cancer). All three appeared together in the celebrity lineup at the 2006 Monster Bash, held June 23–25 at the Pittsburgh International Airport Four Points Hotel. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released a ''Midnite Movies'' double

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

set with the rarely seen ''The Boy and the Pirates'', and ''Crystalstone'' (1987), on June 27, 2006. Gordon held a degree from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

. In 2012, he hosted and moderated a screening of '' The Amazing Colossal Man'' in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, Texas.

Personal life and death

Gordon was married from 1945 to 1979 to Flora Lang (1925–2016); the two divorced in 1979. They had three daughters:

Susan Susan is a feminine given name, the usual English version of Susanna or Susannah. All are versions of the Hebrew name Shoshana, which is derived from the Hebrew ''shoshan'', meaning ''lotus flower'' in Egyptian, original derivation, and severa ...

(who predeceased her parents), Carol, and Patricia. Gordon had a fourth daughter, Christina, with his second wife, Eva. Gordon died in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

on March 8, 2023, at the age of 100.

Filmography

As director-producer. Source for credits, years and primary titles: Note: Source erroneously lists Gordon as co-screenwriter of '' The One and Only'', solely written by Steve Gordon.

Legacy

Of these titles, ''King Dinosaur'', ''The Amazing Colossal Man'', ''Earth Vs. The Spider'', ''War of the Colossal Beast'', ''The Magic Sword'', ''Tormented'', ''Beginning of the End'', and ''Village of the Giants'' were featured on the film-spoofing series ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. It then ...

''. Later, ''Attack of the Puppet People'' was featured on the spin-off to ''MST3K'', '' Rifftrax'', as was a redux of ''The Magic Sword''.Attack of the Puppet People, Rifftrax
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References

External links