Roger Michael Watkins (September 17, 1948 – March 6, 2007) was an American filmmaker best known for the 1970s

grindhouse A grindhouse or action house is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows low-budget horror, splatter, and exploitation films for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a f ...

movie '' Last House on Dead End Street''. He also directed several adult films, working with pornographic actors such as

Jamie Gillis Jamie Gillis (born Jamey Ira Gurman; April 20, 1943 – February 19, 2010) was an American pornographic actor, director and member of the AVN Hall of Fame. He was married to the porn actress Serena. Early life Gillis was born Jamey Ira Gurm ...

Vanessa del Rio Vanessa del Rio (born March 31, 1952) is an American retired pornographic actress. Early years Vanessa del Rio was born Ana María Sánchez and raised in Harlem, New York, the only child of immigrants from Cuba and Puerto Rico. Her mother would ...

, and

Samantha Fox Samantha Karen Fox (born 15 April 1966) is an English pop singer and former glamour model from Crouch End in North London. She has appeared on reality television shows and has occasionally worked as a television presenter and actress. Fox beg ...

. The Internet Movie Database lists a number of Watkins' aliases (see the information box at right), most of which seem to have been used in '' Last House on Dead End Street'' to conceal the fact that he worked in several capacities on that film (director, actor, writer, editor, and producer).

Biography

Watkins was born in

Binghamton, New York Binghamton ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the c ...

. He graduated from

Oneonta State College The State University of New York at Oneonta, also known as SUNY Oneonta, is a public university in Oneonta, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. History SUNY Oneonta was established in 1889 as the Oneonta ...

in 1971 with a Bachelor's degree in English Literature. While studying for his degree he visited England and served as an apprentice for film director

Freddie Francis Frederick William Francis (22 December 1917 – 17 March 2007) was an English cinematographer and film director whose filmmaking career spanned over 60 years, from the late 1930s until the late 2000s. One of the most celebrated British cinemato ...

. On returning to the U.S. he continued his apprenticeship, working for

Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( ; ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian Americans, Austrian-American film and theatre director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the the ...

and

Nicholas Ray Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Described by the Harvard Film Archive as "Hollywood's last romantic" and "one of postwar American cinem ...

. He married Marcia Elliott in 1972, with whom he fathered two daughters. Watkins began his career in adult film by writing the screenplay for ''Mystique (1979)'' which was directed by Roberta Findlay and for which he was uncredited. The following year he began writing and directing adult feature films under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

Richard Mahler, which he took from combining the names of two of his favorite composers,

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

and

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...

. His best known adult films (''Her Name Was Lisa (1979), Midnight Heat (1983)'', ''Corruption (1983)'', and ''American Babylon (1985)'' are considered by many to be more

cult film A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase, which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage in repeated ...

s or arthouse films than pornography due to their multi layered narratives that are downbeat in tone, containing elements of

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Psychological horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Christmas horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Analog horror, a subgenre of horror fiction * ...

and

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

. Watkins died at his home in

Apalachin, New York Apalachin ( ) is a census-designated place within the Owego (town), New York, Town of Owego in Tioga County, New York, Tioga County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 1,131 in the 2010 census. The CDP is named after Apa ...

on March 6, 2007, aged 58.

Partial filmography

References

External links

Richard Mahler
at the

Internet Adult Film Database The Internet Adult Film Database (IAFD) is an online database of information pertaining to the sex industry, pornography industry: Pornographic film actor, actors, Pornographic film actor, actresses, Film director, directors, Pornographic film s ...

* 1948 births 2007 deaths Film directors from New York (state) American pornographic film directors State University of New York at Oneonta alumni {{US-film-director-1940s-stub