Bert I. Gordon
| Bert I. Gordon | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 24, 1922 Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Other names | Mister B.I.G. |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Spouse(s) | Flora Gordon a.k.a. Flora Lang (divorced 1979) |
| Children | 3 including Susan Gordon (deceased) |
| Website | www.bertigordon.com |
Bert I. Gordon (born September 24, 1922) is an American film director most famous for such science fiction and horror B-movies as The Amazing Colossal Man and Village of the Giants. Most of Gordon's work is in the idiom of giant monster films, for which he used rear-projection to create the special effects. His nickname "Mister B.I.G." is a reference both to his initials and to his preferred technique for making super-sized creatures.
Gordon began making home movies in 16mm after his aunt gave him a camera for his 13th birthday. He dropped out of college to join the Air Corps in World War II. After the war, he married and he and his wife began making television commercials. He later edited British feature films to fit half-hour time slots and became a production assistant on Racket Squad and camera man on Serpent Island (1954).
In 1955, Gordon made his first feature, King Dinosaur, followed by The Cyclops in 1957, which co-starred Lon Chaney Jr. In 1957, he began his prolific association with American International Pictures, beginning with The Amazing Colossal Man and its 1958 sequel, War of the Colossal Beast. AIP also distributed some of his other late-50s opuses, such as Earth vs the Spider, Beginning of the End, and Attack of the Puppet People.
After filming Tormented (1960), he wrote, produced and directed The Boy and the Pirates, starring active and popular child star of the time Charles Herbert and Gordon's own daughter, Susan Gordon (who died in 2011 from thyroid cancer). All three appeared together in the celebrity lineup at the 2006 Monster Bash, held June 23–25 at the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Airport Four Points. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released a Midnite Movies double DVD set with the rarely seen The Boy and the Pirates, and the more recent Crystalstone (1987), on June 27, 2006.
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