William Castle

American film director born in New York. His real name was William Schloss. He landed his first Broadway role at fifteen after fooling everyone by posing as Samuel Goldwyn's nephew. After working in a wide range of jobs as an actor, writer and producer, he moved to Hollywood in 1937 and began his career as an actor. He spent several years as a dialogue writer before making his directorial debut in 1944. Over the following three decades he directed numerous low-budget films, already showing a particular talent for action genres such as the Western and the crime thriller. In the 1950s he began producing his own films. He specialized in B-grade horror and had notable success with the genre, especially among young audiences; however, he did not win critics' approval, who considered his works to be in poor taste. William Castle became one of the most skillful and imaginative promoters in film history. Among his most famous publicity stunts was insuring audiences with Lloyd's of London against the possibility that someone might die of fright during screenings of Macabre (1958). For The Tingler (1959), one of his best-known films, Castle equipped some theater seats with a device that delivered small electric shocks at the most intense moments of the screening. The film was a science-fiction fantasy starring Vincent Price about strange creatures that kill their victims with electricity. Among his most notable films as a producer is a masterpiece of horror, Rosemary's Baby (1968), by Roman Polanski. During the 1970s he focused mainly on television, producing the series Circle of Fear starting in 1972. In 1977 he died of a heart attack while producing the film 200 Lakeview Drive for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Director Joe Dante paid a affectionate tribute to him in his film Matinée (1993), in which John Goodman plays a film director and producer based on Castle.