Gary Graver
Biography
Gary Foss Graver (July 20, 1938 – November 16, 2006) was an American film director, editor, screenwriter and cinematographer. He was a prolific filmmaker, working in various roles on over 300 films, but is best known as Orson Welles' final cinematographer, working over a period of six years on Welles' epic film The Other Side of the Wind which was released in 2018, 48 years after it was started. Graver began his career in the late 1960s as a cinematographer and editor of various B-movies, including several films by Roger Corman, before providing additional camerawork on John Cassavetes's A Woman Under the Influence (1974). He continued to serve as the cinematographer of numerous horror films from the late 1970s and through the 1980s, including The Toolbox Murders (1978), Trick or Treats (1982), which he also wrote, edited, and directed; Mortuary (1983), They're Playing with Fire (1984), and Twisted Nightmare (1988). Under the pseudonym of Robert McCallum, Graver was also a prolific director of adult films, working as a cinematographer and director on 135 features. Description above from the Wikipedia article Gary Graver, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For & Full Filmography28 Titles
Movie - 1996, 2h 15m • as Bob
Jack is a real scum-bag who is going to marry Kristy. He has a bad habit of sleeping with other women and stealing all of their money. Two weeks before their marriage, Kristy sees Jack having sex with their maid, Rosa. It turns out that he was threatening Rosa into having sex as well as his secretary, Diane. When he goes away on business, Kristy, Rosa, and Diane devise a way to get him back for all of the things he has put them through. They also decide to turn his house into a special massage parlor for a few nights so Kristy can try to make some of the money back that Jack stole from her.
Movie - 1973, 2h 15m • as Self
Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works of art by painters like Picasso and Matisse. Irving was infamous for writing a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles moves between documentary and fiction as he examines the fundamental elements of fraud and the people who commit fraud at the expense of others.
Movie - 2018, 2h 15m • as Self (archive footage)
As his life comes to its end, famous Hollywood director Orson Welles puts it all on the line at the chance for renewed success with the film The Other Side of the Wind.
Movie - 2018, 2h 15m • as Documentary Filmmaker
At a media-swamped party to celebrate his seventieth birthday and screen his avant-garde film-in-progress, a legendary but jaded Hollywood director is faced both with voracious fans and unsettling questions about what became of his lead actor.
Movie - 1974, 2h 15m • as Billy
A team of girls go on a killing spree across the country.
Movie - 1970, 2h 15m • as Earthly Vampire (uncredited)
Astronauts land on a planet with prehistoric creatures and a war between a human-like tribe and a race of vampires.
Movie - 1973, 2h 15m • as Charlie
Johnny, a psychopath, puts together a gang made up of young teenage girls to commit crimes for him. Everything is going well until one day, during a diamond robbery, the girls are forced to take two hostages and bring them back to the hideout along with the loot. Furious, Johnny wants to kill the hostages so there will be no witnesses, but one of his gang, who happens to be his sister, starts to think that maybe Johnny is going too far.
Movie - 1996, 2h 15m • as Psych Patient
A family's life is thrown into comical chaos after mom accidentally drinks her inventor husband's latest concoction, an invisibility potion.
Movie - 1992, 2h 15m • as Vinnie (uncredited)
A serial killer is after hookers and strippers. A male detective and his female partner are assigned to stop him.
Movie - 1990, 2h 15m • as Camera Guy
Someone is killing off the female leads of the movie production "Bad Girls from Mars." The producers feel they should try to finish the film, even though they're making a lucrative amount from insurance payoffs, so they fly in European sex bomb Emanuelle as the new lead. Emanuelle immediately begins embarrassing the producers by leading a wild party life around town. Meanwhile the killings continue, and detectives try to stop the fiend responsible.
Movie - 2006, 2h 15m • as Self
An hour-long documentary designed to celebrate the spirit of the independent filmmaker from D.W. Griffith to Quentin Tarantino. Interview footage and film clips are blended together to form a chronological approach to the subject matter.
Movie - 1973, 2h 15m • as Police Sergeant (uncredited)
A cautionary tale. At 17, Sherman Oaks high schooler Pam Banner has a baby out of wedlock. The baby is adopted, but Pam's too embarrassed to go back to school, so her dad gets her a job as the receptionist for a talent agent. A rock star takes her to a party, seduces and abandons her; that starts a spiral of partying, free love, and drug use. Pam becomes friends with Jeannie, a hooker who supports Jimmy, a useless druggie. Soon the three of them are living together, and Jimmy seems appealing to Pam. She's missing work more and more often, Jeannie wants out of the life, Jimmy is going through withdrawal, and Pam is in the middle of a maelstrom. Is there any exit for Pam?
Movie - 1993, 2h 15m • as Himself
"Working with Orson Welles" is a low-budget production put together by Gary Graver, who worked as a cameraman for Welles in the last 15 years of his life.
Movie - 1997, 2h 15m • as Conspirator
When Interpol officer Kyle Connors, Don "The Dragon" Wilson, watches his partner die in an explosion, he swears he'll hunt down the killer. Yanked of the case by Internal Affairs, Connors defied his orders and follows the only lead he has... to India. Now, he is in a strange land where nothing is what it seems. Who can he trust? A beautiful counter-operative? An earnest young cop? A reclusive arms dealer? In a country where assassins come cheap, Connors finds himself in a cobra's nest of danger and betrayal.
Movie - 1969, 2h 15m • as Bill
A circus owner and a hunter's daughter go into an African jungle in order to capture a giant gorilla named Gorga just so that he can be used as an attraction for the former's circus.
Movie - 1998, 2h 15m • as Forger
Doug Baily's father is weird, but a strange machine in the garage now makes him invisible too. It's a roller coaster ride of fun and hijinks as Doug tries to turn his invisible dad back to normal again.
Movie - 1985, 2h 15m • as Self
Welles had a lifelong interest in magic, having been taught his first magic tricks by Harry Houdini in the 1920s, when Welles was still a boy. In this unfinished television special, filmed between 1976 and 1985, Welles performs various magic tricks for the camera, promising that no trick photography is used.
Movie - 1993, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
The film recalls Orson Welles’ Italian period. “Rosabella” is the translation, proposed by the first Italian adaptation, of “Rosebud,” the object at the center of the story of Charles Foster Kane, the main character of Citizen Kane (1941), Welles’ debut film.
Movie - 2019, 2h 15m • as Himself (archive footage)
Brought to life through archival material and the reflections of over 40 colleagues, friends and fans, BLOOD & FLESH is much more than the story of a moviemaking life most unusual. It beautifully captures the worlds of outsider filmmaker communities that existed in California in the ’70s, and the weird ways they intersected with Hollywood mainstream and union indies. On Adamson shoots, regular Orson Welles crew and cinematographers like Gary Graver, Vilmos Szigmond and Lazlo Kovaks worked alongside Bud Cardos — and at one point, Charles Manson! Director David Gregory (founder of Severin Films, director of LOST SOUL: THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY’S ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU) spent years making this film, speaking to everyone down to the cops who investigated Adamson’s murder, vividly encapsulating both a bold life and tragic demise, with alien conspiracies, go-go dancers and Colonel Sanders coming in along the way. If you’ve got even a passing interest in cinema, you want to see this
Movie - 1991, 2h 15m • as Self
Hour long documentary features interviews with filmmakers, actors and others who work low budget movies.
Movie - 1969, 2h 15m • as Dave
A carnival owner gets mixed up with gangsters and a speedboat racer. He soon finds himself in danger of losing his business, his wife and all his money.
Movie - 1971, 2h 15m • as Tim Harris
A Mexican bandit and his gang are offered a pardon and a cash reward if he will cross the border into America and bring back a gang of murderous gold thieves who robbed the local church and killed the priest and the Head Federales' wife and children.
Movie - 1973, 2h 15m • as Fire Engine Rider / Man in Alley (uncredited)
Ten years after his divorce, a man is surprised by a visit from his now-teenage stepdaughter from that marriage. Although he has a new woman in his life, he lets the young girl stay with them. What he doesn't know is that his new "housemate" is a deranged, homicidal nymphomaniac who tries to seduce both him and his girlfriend and takes her frustrations out on an unlucky Bible salesman.
Movie - 1966, 2h 15m • as The Boy
A girl and a boy meet, and a sexploitation feature ensues.
Movie - 1980, 2h 15m • as waiter (uncredited)
A national news magazine publisher decides to do a front-page story on his daughter's sorority.
Movie - 1980, 2h 15m • as Man in Beret (uncredited)
The misadventures of sexy female mechanics who attempt to open their own business.
Movie - 1982, 2h 15m • as Guy on Pay Phone
A penniless thief gets involved in a scheme to obtain money and sex by using his resemblance to a wealthy family scion.
Movie - 1979, 2h 15m • as Slate Operator
Struggling actor Jerry makes more money as an escort for the rich and famous than he does acting. Wealthy investor J. C. Church hires Jerry to seduce his sister and nieces, in order to have an excuse to disown them.