Richard Sarafian, an influential film director whose 1971 countercultural car-chase thriller Vanishing Point brought him a decades-long cult following, has died in Southern California, his son said Saturday night.
Richard Sarafian died at a Santa Monica hospital on Wednesday of pneumonia contracted while he was recovering from a fall, Deran Sarafian told The Associated Press. He was 83.
Sarafian worked primarily in television in his early career, directing episodes of 60s shows like Gunsmoke, I Spy, and 77 Sunset Strip.
He also directed 1963′s “Living Doll” episode of The Twilight Zone, a chilling tale whose demonic main character Talky Tina terrified children for decades.
Richard Sarafian died at a Santa Monica hospital on Wednesday of pneumonia contracted while he was recovering from a fall, Deran Sarafian told The Associated Press. He was 83.
Sarafian worked primarily in television in his early career, directing episodes of 60s shows like Gunsmoke, I Spy, and 77 Sunset Strip.
He also directed 1963′s “Living Doll” episode of The Twilight Zone, a chilling tale whose demonic main character Talky Tina terrified children for decades.
- 9/22/2013
- by Associated Press
- EW - Inside Movies
Director of the mystical road movie Vanishing Point
Vanishing Point was one of a crop of existential road movies in the early 1970s – the others included Two-Lane Blacktop and Electra Glide in Blue – which quickly gained cult status. Its director, Richard C Sarafian, who has died aged 83, never made another film that struck such a resounding chord with audiences, countercultural or otherwise. No matter: the appeal of Vanishing Point was enduring enough to make him a noted, even influential, figure. Quentin Tarantino thanked Sarafian in the closing credits of his own four-wheeled thriller, Death Proof (2007), and the Scottish band Primal Scream signalled their admiration for Vanishing Point by naming a 1997 album after the movie. "It's always been a favourite of the band," said the singer Bobby Gillespie. "We love the air of paranoia and speed-freak righteousness."
This 1971 film concerns the Vietnam veteran Kowalski (played by Barry Newman after the studio overruled Sarafian's first choice,...
Vanishing Point was one of a crop of existential road movies in the early 1970s – the others included Two-Lane Blacktop and Electra Glide in Blue – which quickly gained cult status. Its director, Richard C Sarafian, who has died aged 83, never made another film that struck such a resounding chord with audiences, countercultural or otherwise. No matter: the appeal of Vanishing Point was enduring enough to make him a noted, even influential, figure. Quentin Tarantino thanked Sarafian in the closing credits of his own four-wheeled thriller, Death Proof (2007), and the Scottish band Primal Scream signalled their admiration for Vanishing Point by naming a 1997 album after the movie. "It's always been a favourite of the band," said the singer Bobby Gillespie. "We love the air of paranoia and speed-freak righteousness."
This 1971 film concerns the Vietnam veteran Kowalski (played by Barry Newman after the studio overruled Sarafian's first choice,...
- 9/20/2013
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
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