Amir Shervan (), born Amir-Hossein Ghaffari (

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: اميرحسين غفاری; May 24, 1929 – November 1, 2006), was an Iranian

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

, producer,

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

Biography

After studying theatre in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

, he returned to his home country, Iran, and had a prolific cinema career that began with Parviz Khatibi's 1949 film ''Vaareite Bahari'' (واریته بهاری). all the way to his own directorial debut '' Torkaman.'' As a result of the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

, many Iranian films were censored or "purified" by the government, making it difficult for any films without a pro-Islamic angle to be made. This halted his filmmaking career, so he relocated to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in 1980. Between 1980 and 1987, Shervan worked to build his production company, Hollywood Royal Productions, where he aimed to make American action films, taking influence from other massive hits of the 1980s, primarily ''Lethal Weapon''. From 1987 to 1992, produced and directed several

action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

s, including, ''Hollywood Cop'', ''Killing American Style'', and '' Samurai Cop'', which starred Matt Hannon and

Robert Z'Dar Robert James Zdarsky (June 3, 1950 – March 30, 2015), better known by his stage name Robert Z'Dar, was an American character actor and film producer, best known for his role as officer Matt Cordell in the cult horror film ''Maniac Cop'' (1988) ...

. Many of the same locations are used throughout his films. For example, the estate that the majority of ''Killing American Style'' is set on, is the same building that the climax of both ''Samurai Cop'' and ''Hollywood Cop'' is set at. Shervan was known to cut the budget in other places, such as filming all of his movies during the day to avoid buying lighting equipment to use for the night sequences, or using his own production van for car chase sequences. After ''Samurai Cop'' in 1991, Shervan retired from filmmaking. Not much is known about his career outside of that. He died in 2006, before his last film would find cult acclaim on the internet. ''Samurai Cop'' was restored in a brand new HD transfer for theatrical and DVD release by distributor Cinema Epoch in 2013, the Blu-ray release came out in 2014. Cinema Epoch will also release Shervan's other works, including ''Killing American Style'', ''Young Rebels'', and ''Gypsy'' in restored versions.

Filmography

* '' Torkaman'' (1974) * ''Hollywood Cop'' (1987) * ''Killing American Style'' (1988) * ''Young Rebels'' (1989) * ''Gypsy'' (1990) * '' Samurai Cop'' (1991)

References

External links

*
Amir Shervan Facebook Page
Iranian expatriates in the United States Iranian emigrants to the United States Iranian male film actors Iranian film directors Iranian film producers Iranian screenwriters Iranian male actors Film people from Tehran 1929 births 2006 deaths {{Iran-film-director-stub