Sam Irvin
Encyclopedia
Sam Irvin is a film
and television director
, producer, screen writer, and author.
's The Great Race
starring Tony Curtis
, Jack Lemmon
and Natalie Wood
. In a giant water tank on a sound stage, Irvin watched with wide eyes as a nighttime storm scene unfolded, featuring antique cars floating across the Bering Straight on icebergs. From that moment on, he decided he wanted to direct movies. Commandeering his father's Super 8mm home movie camera, Irvin directed numerous horror movie shorts, including one starring his younger brother, Tim, as Dracula wearing a black beach towel for a cape, plastic fangs, and lots of ketchup.
Like the young boy in Cinema Paradiso, Irvin spent much of his youth in movie theaters. His grandfather, Warren Irvin, was the district manager for Wilby-Kincey Theaters, a chain of cinemas throughout the Southeast. And his father, Sam Irvin Sr., co-owned Irvin-Fuller Theaters, a competing chain with cinemas in North and South Carolina. During his youth, Irvin worked in these theaters in every capacity, from popping popcorn to tearing tickets to organizing horror movie kiddie matinees (with an emphasis on Vincent Price
, Roger Corman
, and Hammer Films). Later, during his college years, he worked for Irvin-Fuller Theaters as its Advertising and Publicity Manager, spearheading a record-breaking year-long run of Silver Streak starring Gene Wilder
and Richard Pryor
at the Gamecock Cinema in Columbia, South Carolina.
As a teenager, he edited and published four annual issues of Bizarre (1972-75), a fanzine on fantasy, horror and science fiction films, for which he twice traveled to England to conduct in-person interviews with the likes of Vincent Price
, Christopher Lee
(on the set of the James Bond
movie The Man with the Golden Gun
), Peter Cushing
, Diana Rigg
, Ingrid Pitt
, Jane Seymour
, Joan Collins
, Terence Fisher
, Freddie Francis
, and Sir James Carreras and his son, Michael Carreras
(of Hammer Film Productions
), among many others. (See retrospective 13-page spread on the history of Bizarre in Richard Klemensen's Little Shoppe of Horrors, issue number 27, October 2011.)
In 1978, Irvin graduated from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Arts. While attending the university, he was the film critic for The Gamecock, the campus newspaper, and won a student film award for his thesis short film. He was also chairman of the University of South Carolina Film Committee that ran a year-round cinema program at the campus theater.
During his summer break in 1977, Irvin interned on the Chicago location shooting for Brian De Palma’s The Fury starring Kirk Douglas
, John Cassavetes
, Amy Irving
and Charles Durning
. He worked on the feature as a production assistant and extra, and also wrote a journal on the making of the movie that was published in Cinefantastique
magazine, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1978. Irvin also conducted an exclusive interview with Amy Irving
in which, for the first time anywhere, she discussed her relationship with Steven Spielberg
; it was published in Cinefantastique
, Vol 6, No. 4 / Vol. 7, No. 1, a special double Star Wars
issue, 1978.
After graduating from the University of South Carolina in May 1978, Irvin worked as the Associate Producer and Production Manager on Brian De Palma's Home Movies
starring Kirk Douglas
, Nancy Allen
, and Keith Gordon
. Then, Irvin worked as De Palma's assistant on Dressed to Kill starring Michael Caine
, Angie Dickinson
, Nancy Allen and Keith Gordon
.
He also worked closely with De Palma on several projects in development, including Blow Out
(which eventually De Palma directed, starring John Travolta
and Nancy Allen), and Prince of the City
(which was originally going to star Robert De Niro
from a script by David Rabe, but was ultimately directed by Sidney Lumet
starring Treat Williams
).
Irvin gave up his position as De Palma's assistant to produce The First Time, a coming-of-age comedy for which De Palma served as a credited Creative Consultant. Released by New Line Cinema, the film starred Tim Choate
, Wendie Jo Sperber
, Wallace Shawn
, Cathryn Damon
and Jane Badler
.
During the 1980s, Irvin served as Vice President of Marketing for three film distributors: United Artists Classics (during the regime of Tom Bernard, Michael Barker
and Donna Gigliotti
), Spectrafilm, and Vestron. During this period, Irvin won Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards for designing the movie posters for Francois Truffaut
’s Confidentially Yours
and Paul Verhoeven’s The Fourth Man
. He also helped spearhead the record-breaking year-long run of Jean-Jacques Beineix
's Diva
in New York City.
Irvin's first directorial effort, which he also wrote and produced, was the 1985 dark comedy short Double Negative, which starred Bill Randolph
, Justin Henry
, Wayne Knight
, and William Finley
. It premiered as an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival and subsequently played theatrically in New York and Los Angeles. Janet Maslin
of The New York Times
wrote that it was "an exceptionally promising first effort."
Irvin went on to direct more than a dozen feature films, including:
Guilty as Charged starring Rod Steiger
, Lauren Hutton
, Heather Graham
, and Isaac Hayes
. (The film won the Gold Special Jury Award for Best Independent Feature at Houston Worldfest.)
Out There a Showtime Original Movie starring Billy Campbell
, Billy Bob Thornton
, Rod Steiger
, Jill St. John
, Paul Dooley
and Julie Brown
.
Acting on Impulse a Showtime Original Movie starring C. Thomas Howell
, Linda Fiorentino
, Nancy Allen
, Paul Bartel
, Mary Woronov
, Isaac Hayes
, and Cassandra Peterson
.
Fat Rose and Squeaky a Showtime Original Movie starring Louise Fletcher
, Cicely Tyson
and Julie Brown
.
A Very Cool Christmas starring George Hamilton
and Donna Mills
.
Deadly Skies
starring Antonio Sabato Jr., Rae Dawn Chong
and Michael Moriarty
.
Elvira's Haunted Hills
starring Cassandra Peterson
as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, and Richard O'Brien
. (The film won the Audience Award at the 2002 Provincetown International Film Festival
.)
From his own original screenplay, Irvin directed the Showtime Original Movie Kiss of a Stranger starring Mariel Hemingway
, Dyan Cannon
, Corbin Bernsen
and David Carradine
.
Irvin directed the cult sci-fi westerns Oblivion
and its sequel Oblivion 2: Backlash, starring Julie Newmar
, George Takei
, Isaac Hayes
, Meg Foster
and Maxwell Caulfield
. (Oblivion won the Gold Award for Best Fantasy / Science Fiction Feature at Houston Worldfest.)
He also directed the Disney Channel time-travel pirate fantasy Magic Island
starring Zachery Ty Bryan
and French Stewart
.
For television, Irvin directed several episodes of Comedy Central's Strip Mall
starring Julie Brown
, Cindy Williams
and Stella Stevens
.
Irvin directed three full seasons of Dante's Cove
starring Tracy Scoggins
, Charlie David
, Jenny Shimizu
, Thea Gill
and Reichen Lehmkuhl
. (Irvin also co-wrote the series' international hit theme song, "Dying to Be with You").
Also for television, Irvin directed the opening of The 100th Anniversary of the World Series (2003), for Fox Television (a "through the ages" montage featuring the music of and starring Sheila E.
).
Irvin directed several segments for the 2004 Super Bowl
including a comedy sketch starring Eugene Levy as a scientist trying to improve the entertainment value of football. Other vignettes included Will Smith
, Drew Barrymore
and Jimmy Fallon
.
And, for the Fox Sports opening of the 2007 Sugar Bowl
, Irvin directed "Dueling Musicians," shot on the streets of New Orleans.
After directing several American-financed films in Romania, Irvin was invited by Romanian-based Mediapro Studios to direct Garcea si oltenii, a spin-off of Romania's most popular television show, starring a Monty Python-like sketch comedy group known as Vacante Mare. It became the highest grossing motion picture in Romanian history up to that time, beating previous record-holder, James Cameron's Titanic.
Also in Romania, Irvin directed I Will Return A Man, a rock opera performed by the Romanian rock group Vama Veche
, broadcast live on television from the National Theater in Bucharest. It was an anti-war musical in the same genre as Pink Floyd's The Wall
.
His credits as a producer include:
Associate producing Brian De Palma
's Home Movies
starring Kirk Douglas
, Nancy Allen
and Keith Gordon
. (Irvin also served as Production Manager.)
Co-executive producing Bill Condon
's Academy Award-winning film Gods and Monsters
starring Sir Ian McKellen
, Brendan Fraser
and Lynn Redgrave
. (Irvin also co-directed the "Making of" documentary for the DVD, entitled The World of Gods and Monsters: A Journey with James Whale.)
Co-producing Greg Berlanti
's The Broken Hearts Club starring Timothy Olyphant
, Dean Cain
, Zach Braff
, John Mahoney
, Nia Long
and Justin Theroux.
Co-executive producing Bob Clark
's I'll Remember April
starring Haley Joel Osment
, Pat Morita
, Mark Harmon
, Pam Dawber
and Paul Dooley
. (Irvin also was the second-unit director.)
Co-executive producing Boltneck starring Ryan Reynolds
, Shelley Duvall
, Matthew Lawrence
and Judge Reinhold
.
Associate producing The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human
starring Mackenzie Astin
, David Hyde Pierce
, Carmen Elektra and Lucy Liu
.
Co-producing Error in Judgement starring Joanna Pacula
, Joe Montegna, Kate Jackson
and Paul Dooley
.
Co-producing When Time Expires starring Richard Greico, Mark Hamill
and Chad Everett
.
Associate producing Sticky Fingers
starring Helen Slater
, Melanie Mayron
, Eileen Brennan
, Carol Kane
, Christopher Guest
and Loretta Devine
.
Producing The First Time starring Tim Choate
, Wendie Jo Sperber
, Wallace Shawn
, Cathryn Damon
and Jane Badler
. Creative Consultant: Brian De Palma
.
Irvin's first book, Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise, was published by Simon & Schuster (November 2010) and selected by Kirkus Reviews
as one of the "Best Biographies of 2010." Acclaimed by columnist Liz Smith
as "a smashing work" and by entertainer Michael Feinstein
as "one of the best showbiz bios I've ever read," this comprehensive biography covers the life and career of the legendary singer-actress-composer-arranger-author-fashionista Kay Thompson
. She was the mentor/best friend of Judy Garland
, the vocal guru to Frank Sinatra
and Lena Horne
, and the godmother/Svengali to Liza Minnelli
(who recreated Thompson's nightclub act in the 2009 Tony Award-winning event Liza's at the Palace).
In connection with his research on the life of Thompson, Irvin served as a historical consultant on Liza's at the Palace; he produced and annotated the 2009 3-CD box set compilation Think Pink! A Kay Thompson Party (Sepia Records); and he appeared in and consulted on Paramount Home Entertainment's documentary Kay Thompson: Think Pink! (an extra included in Paramount's Centennial Collection DVD edition of Stanley Donen's Funny Face
starring Audrey Hepburn
, Fred Astaire
, and Kay Thompson
).
Between projects, Irvin is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts where he teaches graduate courses on directing.
He resides in Los Angeles with Gary Bowers, his partner since 1982.
As producer
As actor
As writer
As author
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and television director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
, producer, screen writer, and author.
Career
Sam Irvin was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1964, when he was eight years old, Irvin went on a family trip to California where he was able to tour various movie studios. At Warner Brothers, he watched an elaborate sequence being filmed for Blake EdwardsBlake Edwards
Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...
's The Great Race
The Great Race
The Great Race is a 1965 slapstick comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood, directed by Blake Edwards, written by Blake Edwards and Arthur A. Ross, and with music by Henry Mancini and cinematography by Russell Harlan. The supporting cast includes Peter Falk, Keenan Wynn,...
starring Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
, Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
and Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
. In a giant water tank on a sound stage, Irvin watched with wide eyes as a nighttime storm scene unfolded, featuring antique cars floating across the Bering Straight on icebergs. From that moment on, he decided he wanted to direct movies. Commandeering his father's Super 8mm home movie camera, Irvin directed numerous horror movie shorts, including one starring his younger brother, Tim, as Dracula wearing a black beach towel for a cape, plastic fangs, and lots of ketchup.
Like the young boy in Cinema Paradiso, Irvin spent much of his youth in movie theaters. His grandfather, Warren Irvin, was the district manager for Wilby-Kincey Theaters, a chain of cinemas throughout the Southeast. And his father, Sam Irvin Sr., co-owned Irvin-Fuller Theaters, a competing chain with cinemas in North and South Carolina. During his youth, Irvin worked in these theaters in every capacity, from popping popcorn to tearing tickets to organizing horror movie kiddie matinees (with an emphasis on Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
, Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
, and Hammer Films). Later, during his college years, he worked for Irvin-Fuller Theaters as its Advertising and Publicity Manager, spearheading a record-breaking year-long run of Silver Streak starring Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder is an American stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, and author.Wilder began his career on stage, making his screen debut in the film Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. His first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1968 film The Producers...
and Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...
at the Gamecock Cinema in Columbia, South Carolina.
As a teenager, he edited and published four annual issues of Bizarre (1972-75), a fanzine on fantasy, horror and science fiction films, for which he twice traveled to England to conduct in-person interviews with the likes of Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
, Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
(on the set of the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
movie The Man with the Golden Gun
The Man with the Golden Gun
The Man with the Golden Gun is the twelfth novel of Ian Fleming's James Bond series of books. It was first published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on 1 April 1965, eight months after the author's death. The novel was not as detailed or polished as the others in the series, leading to poor but polite...
), Peter Cushing
Peter Cushing
Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE was an English actor, known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played the handsome but sinister scientist Baron Frankenstein and the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, amongst many other roles, often appearing opposite Christopher Lee, and occasionally...
, Diana Rigg
Diana Rigg
Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service....
, Ingrid Pitt
Ingrid Pitt
Ingrid Pitt was an actress best known for her work in horror films of the 1960s and 1970s.-Background:Pitt was born Ingoushka Petrov in Warsaw, Poland to a German father of Russian descent and a Polish Jewish mother. During World War II she and her family were imprisoned in a concentration camp...
, Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII. She succeeded Anne Boleyn as queen consort following the latter's execution for trumped up charges of high treason, incest and adultery in May 1536. She died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of...
, Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
, Terence Fisher
Terence Fisher
Terence Fisher was a film director who worked for Hammer Films. He was born in Maida Vale, a district of London, England.Fisher was one of the most prominent horror directors of the second half of the 20th century...
, Freddie Francis
Freddie Francis
Frederick William Francis BSC was an English cinematographer and film director.He achieved his greatest successes as a cinematographer, including winning two Academy Awards, for Sons and Lovers and Glory...
, and Sir James Carreras and his son, Michael Carreras
Michael Carreras
Michael Carreras was a British film producer and director. He was best known for his association with Hammer Studios, being the son of founder James Carreras, and taking an executive role in the company during its most successful years.As producer, he worked on The Curse of Frankenstein , Dracula ...
(of Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
), among many others. (See retrospective 13-page spread on the history of Bizarre in Richard Klemensen's Little Shoppe of Horrors, issue number 27, October 2011.)
In 1978, Irvin graduated from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Arts. While attending the university, he was the film critic for The Gamecock, the campus newspaper, and won a student film award for his thesis short film. He was also chairman of the University of South Carolina Film Committee that ran a year-round cinema program at the campus theater.
During his summer break in 1977, Irvin interned on the Chicago location shooting for Brian De Palma’s The Fury starring Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
, John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...
, Amy Irving
Amy Irving
Amy Davis Irving is an American actress, known for her roles in the films Crossing Delancey, The Fury, Carrie, and Yentl as well as acclaimed roles on Broadway and Off-Broadway. She has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and has won an Obie award...
and Charles Durning
Charles Durning
Charles Durning is an American actor. With appearances in over 100 films, Durning's memorable roles include police officers in the Oscar-winning The Sting and crime drama Dog Day Afternoon , along with the comedies Tootsie, To Be Or Not To Be and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the last two...
. He worked on the feature as a production assistant and extra, and also wrote a journal on the making of the movie that was published in Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique was a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke...
magazine, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1978. Irvin also conducted an exclusive interview with Amy Irving
Amy Irving
Amy Davis Irving is an American actress, known for her roles in the films Crossing Delancey, The Fury, Carrie, and Yentl as well as acclaimed roles on Broadway and Off-Broadway. She has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and has won an Obie award...
in which, for the first time anywhere, she discussed her relationship with Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
; it was published in Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique was a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke...
, Vol 6, No. 4 / Vol. 7, No. 1, a special double Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
issue, 1978.
After graduating from the University of South Carolina in May 1978, Irvin worked as the Associate Producer and Production Manager on Brian De Palma's Home Movies
Home movies
A home movie is part of the motion picture filmmaking process made by amateurs, often for viewing by family and friends. When the hobby began, home movies were produced on photographic film, but accessibility of video production with video cameras and low cost data storage devices has made the...
starring Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
, Nancy Allen
Nancy Allen (actress)
Nancy Anne Allen is a Golden Globe nominated American actress and cancer activist.Allen began an acting and modelling career as a child, and from the mid-1970s appeared in small film roles, most notably the anchor of Robert Zemeckis's ensemble comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand...
, and Keith Gordon
Keith Gordon
Keith Gordon is an American actor and film director.-Life and career:Gordon was born in New York City, the son of Barbara, an actress, and Mark Gordon, an actor and stage director. He grew up in an atheist Jewish family and was inspired to become an actor at the age of twelve, after seeing James...
. Then, Irvin worked as De Palma's assistant on Dressed to Kill starring Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
, Angie Dickinson
Angie Dickinson
Angie Dickinson is an American actress. She has appeared in more than fifty films, including Rio Bravo, Ocean's Eleven, Dressed to Kill and Pay It Forward, and starred on television as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson on the 1970s crime series Police Woman.-Early life:Dickinson, the second of...
, Nancy Allen and Keith Gordon
Keith Gordon
Keith Gordon is an American actor and film director.-Life and career:Gordon was born in New York City, the son of Barbara, an actress, and Mark Gordon, an actor and stage director. He grew up in an atheist Jewish family and was inspired to become an actor at the age of twelve, after seeing James...
.
He also worked closely with De Palma on several projects in development, including Blow Out
Blow Out
Blow Out is a 1981 thriller film, written and directed by Brian De Palma. The film stars John Travolta as Jack Terry, a movie sound effects technician from Philadelphia who, while recording sounds for a low-budget slasher film, serendipitously captures audio evidence of an assassination involving a...
(which eventually De Palma directed, starring John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
and Nancy Allen), and Prince of the City
Prince of the City
Prince of the City is an American crime drama film about an NYPD officer who chooses to expose police corruption for idealistic reasons. The character of Daniel Ciello was based on real-life NYPD Narcotics Detective Robert Leuci and the script was based on Robert Daley's 1978 book of the same name...
(which was originally going to star Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
from a script by David Rabe, but was ultimately directed by Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
starring Treat Williams
Treat Williams
Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...
).
Irvin gave up his position as De Palma's assistant to produce The First Time, a coming-of-age comedy for which De Palma served as a credited Creative Consultant. Released by New Line Cinema, the film starred Tim Choate
Tim Choate
Tim Choate was an American actor who starred in a number of film and television roles on series such as Dragnet and Babylon 5....
, Wendie Jo Sperber
Wendie Jo Sperber
Wendie Jo Sperber was an American actress, best known for her performances in the films I Wanna Hold Your Hand , Bachelor Party and Back to the Future as well as the television sitcom Bosom Buddies .-Life:Sperber was born in Hollywood and aimed for a performing-arts career from high school onward...
, Wallace Shawn
Wallace Shawn
Wallace Michael Shawn , sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, author, voice artist, and intellectual. His best-known film roles include Wally Shawn in My Dinner with Andre , Vizzini in The Princess Bride , and debate teacher Mr...
, Cathryn Damon
Cathryn Damon
Cathryn Lee Damon was an American actress, best known for her roles on television sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s....
and Jane Badler
Jane Badler
Jane Badler is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Diana, the chief antagonist in NBC's science fiction TV series, V, between 1983-85. Badler also appeared in ABC's "reimagined" version of V in 2011, again playing an alien named Diana, who this time is the mother of...
.
During the 1980s, Irvin served as Vice President of Marketing for three film distributors: United Artists Classics (during the regime of Tom Bernard, Michael Barker
Michael Barker
Lieutenant-General Michael George Henry Barker CB, DSO was a British Army general.-Military career:Barker, born 1884 in Wells District, Somerset, served in the Militia during the Second Boer War before accepted a commission in The Lincolnshire Regiment in 1903...
and Donna Gigliotti
Donna Gigliotti
Donna Gigliotti is an American film producer. She is best known for producing the academy award winning film Shakespeare in Love with David Parfitt, Harvey Weinstein, Edward Zwick and Marc Norman . Gigliotti started her professional career as an assistant to Martin Scorsese on the film Raging Bull...
), Spectrafilm, and Vestron. During this period, Irvin won Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards for designing the movie posters for Francois Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
’s Confidentially Yours
Confidentially Yours
Confidentially Yours is a 1983 French film directed by François Truffaut. It is based on the novel The Long Saturday Night, by the American author Charles Williams, and was Truffaut's last film...
and Paul Verhoeven’s The Fourth Man
The Fourth Man
The Fourth Man is a 1983 Dutch suspense film directed by Paul Verhoeven, based on the novel De vierde man by Gerard Reve. The film stars Jeroen Krabbé and Renée Soutendijk in the lead roles.-Plot:...
. He also helped spearhead the record-breaking year-long run of Jean-Jacques Beineix
Jean-Jacques Beineix
-Biography:In 1964, Jean-Jacques Beineix started his career as Jean Becker's assistant director on the famous French TV series, Les saintes chéries until the end of 1967. Then, in 1970 he worked for Claude Berri and in 1971 for Claude Zidi. In 1977, he directed his first short movie Le Chien de M....
's Diva
Diva
A diva is a celebrated female singer. The term is used to describe a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and, by extension, in theatre, cinema and popular music. The meaning of diva is closely related to that of "prima donna"....
in New York City.
Irvin's first directorial effort, which he also wrote and produced, was the 1985 dark comedy short Double Negative, which starred Bill Randolph
Bill Randolph
Bill Randolph is an American actor who has starred in films and appeared on television.He starred with Mercedes Hall in Lanny Meyer and Arthur Morey's social protest disco musical, "St. Joan of the Microphone," which played New York City parks and festivals, including the Lincoln Center Outdoor...
, Justin Henry
Justin Henry
Justin Henry is a former child actor, who since 2000 has been a new media business professional. He appeared in the 1979 film Kramer vs. Kramer, his first role, in a performance that earned him a nomination for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the youngest actor to ever be nominated in any...
, Wayne Knight
Wayne Knight
Wayne Eliot Knight is an American actor, comedian, and voice actor perhaps best known for his role as Newman in the TV sitcom Seinfeld...
, and William Finley
William Finley (actor)
William Finley is an American actor who has appeared in the films Simon, Silent Rage, Phantom of the Paradise, Sisters, Obsession and The Wedding Party. Finley has had a long film relationship with director Brian De Palma, beginning with the student films "Woton's Wake", and "Murder a la Mod"...
. It premiered as an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival and subsequently played theatrically in New York and Los Angeles. Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote that it was "an exceptionally promising first effort."
Irvin went on to direct more than a dozen feature films, including:
Guilty as Charged starring Rod Steiger
Rod Steiger
Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
, Lauren Hutton
Lauren Hutton
Lauren Hutton is an American model and actress. She is best-known for her starring roles in the movies American Gigolo and Lassiter, and also for her fashion modeling career.-Personal life:...
, Heather Graham
Heather Graham
Heather Joan Graham is an American actress. She has appeared in such films as Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Lost in Space, Bowfinger, From Hell, Anger Management, and The Hangover...
, and Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...
. (The film won the Gold Special Jury Award for Best Independent Feature at Houston Worldfest.)
Out There a Showtime Original Movie starring Billy Campbell
Billy Campbell
William Oliver "Billy" Campbell is an American film and television actor. In television, he is best known for his roles as Rick Sammler on Once and Again, as Det. Joey Indelli on Crime Story, as Jordan Collier on The 4400, and as Dr. Jon Fielding on the Tales of the City Miniseries...
, Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, screenwriter, director and musician. Thornton gained early recognition as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire and in several early 1990s films including On Deadly Ground and Tombstone...
, Rod Steiger
Rod Steiger
Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
, Jill St. John
Jill St. John
Jill St. John is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Tiffany Case, the lead Bond girl in Diamonds Are Forever.-Early life:...
, Paul Dooley
Paul Dooley
-Personal life:Dooley was born Paul Dooley Brown in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the son of Ruth Irene , a homemaker, and Peter James Brown, a factory worker. Dooley was a cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. He joined the Navy before discovering acting while at...
and Julie Brown
Julie Brown
Julie Ann Brown is an American actress, comedienne, screen/television writer, singer-songwriter, television director. Brown is perhaps best known for her work in the 1980s, where she often played a quintessential valley girl character...
.
Acting on Impulse a Showtime Original Movie starring C. Thomas Howell
C. Thomas Howell
Christopher Thomas "Tommy" Howell , known by his stage name C. Thomas Howell, is an American actor and film director. He starred in the films The Outsiders as Ponyboy Curtis and in The Hitcher as Jim Halsey. He has appeared in The Da Vinci Treasure,Soul Man, Red Dawn, Secret Admirer, Gettysburg, H. G...
, Linda Fiorentino
Linda Fiorentino
Linda Fiorentino is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the films Dogma, Vision Quest, Men in Black, After Hours and The Last Seduction.-Personal life:...
, Nancy Allen
Nancy Allen (actress)
Nancy Anne Allen is a Golden Globe nominated American actress and cancer activist.Allen began an acting and modelling career as a child, and from the mid-1970s appeared in small film roles, most notably the anchor of Robert Zemeckis's ensemble comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand...
, Paul Bartel
Paul Bartel
Paul Bartel was an American actor, writer and director. Bartel was perhaps most known for his 1982 hit black comedy Eating Raoul, which he wrote, starred in and directed.-Life and career:...
, Mary Woronov
Mary Woronov
Mary Woronov is an American actress and writer. She is primarily known for her roles in independent and cult films. Woronov has appeared in over 80 movies, as well as numerous appearances in mainstream television series, such as Charlie's Angels and Knight Rider.-Early life:Woronov was born in the...
, Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...
, and Cassandra Peterson
Cassandra Peterson
Cassandra Peterson is an American actress best known for her on-screen horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ wearing a black, gothic, cleavage-enhancing gown as host of Movie Macabre, a weekly horror movie presentation...
.
Fat Rose and Squeaky a Showtime Original Movie starring Louise Fletcher
Louise Fletcher
Louise Fletcher is an American actress best known for her role as Nurse Ratched in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and as Kai Winn Adami in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She also guest starred on the science fiction television series Heroes...
, Cicely Tyson
Cicely Tyson
Cicely Tyson is an American actress. A successful stage actress, Tyson is also known for her Oscar-nominated role in the film Sounder and the television movies The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Roots....
and Julie Brown
Julie Brown
Julie Ann Brown is an American actress, comedienne, screen/television writer, singer-songwriter, television director. Brown is perhaps best known for her work in the 1980s, where she often played a quintessential valley girl character...
.
A Very Cool Christmas starring George Hamilton
George Hamilton (actor)
George Stevens Hamilton is an American film and television actor.-Early life:Hamilton was the youngest son of bandleader George "Spike" Hamilton and his first wife, Ann Stevens . He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and lived in Blytheville, Arkansas...
and Donna Mills
Donna Mills
Donna Mills is an American actress, most well known for her role as Abby Fairgate Cunningham Ewing Sumner on the primetime soap opera Knots Landing.-Early years:...
.
Deadly Skies
Deadly Skies
Deadly Skies is a 2005 joint American/Canadian sci-fi television film starring Antonio Sabato, Jr., Rae Dawn Chong, Dominic Zamprogna, Michael Boisvert, Rob LaBelle and Michael Moriarty. The plot concerns the effort of two astronomers and two military men to stop the threat of a giant asteroid on a...
starring Antonio Sabato Jr., Rae Dawn Chong
Rae Dawn Chong
Rae Dawn Chong is a Canadian-American actress.-Life and career:Chong was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the daughter of Maxine Sneed and Tommy Chong. She and her sister Robbi were raised by her grandmother, Tommy Chong's mother. Chong's father is of Chinese and Scottish-Irish ancestry and her...
and Michael Moriarty
Michael Moriarty
Michael Moriarty is an American-Canadian actor of stage and screen, and a jazz musician. He played Benjamin Stone for four seasons on the TV series Law & Order.-Early life:...
.
Elvira's Haunted Hills
Elvira's Haunted Hills
Elvira's Haunted Hills is a sequel to Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, directed by Sam Irvin. The film premiered at the International Rocky Horror Fan Convention on June 23, 2001.-Synopsis:...
starring Cassandra Peterson
Cassandra Peterson
Cassandra Peterson is an American actress best known for her on-screen horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ wearing a black, gothic, cleavage-enhancing gown as host of Movie Macabre, a weekly horror movie presentation...
as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, and Richard O'Brien
Richard O'Brien
Richard Timothy Smith , better known under his stage name Richard O'Brien, is an English writer, actor, television presenter and theatre performer. He is perhaps best known for writing the cult musical The Rocky Horror Show and for his role in presenting the popular TV show The Crystal Maze...
. (The film won the Audience Award at the 2002 Provincetown International Film Festival
Provincetown International Film Festival
The Provincetown International Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1999 and held in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The festival presents a wide array of American and international narrative features, documentaries and short films for five days in June of each year.With panel...
.)
From his own original screenplay, Irvin directed the Showtime Original Movie Kiss of a Stranger starring Mariel Hemingway
Mariel Hemingway
- Early life :Hemingway was born in Mill Valley, California, the third daughter of Byra Louise Hemingway and Jack Hemingway, a writer. Her sisters are Joan Hemingway and Margaux Hemingway...
, Dyan Cannon
Dyan Cannon
Dyan Cannon is an American film and television actress, director, screenwriter, editor, and producer.-Early life:...
, Corbin Bernsen
Corbin Bernsen
Corbin Dean Bernsen is an American actor and director, known for his work on television. He is best known for his roles as divorce attorney Arnold Becker on the NBC drama series L.A. Law, and as retired police detective Henry Spencer on the USA Network comedy-drama series Psych...
and David Carradine
David Carradine
David Carradine was an American actor and martial artist, best known for his role as a warrior monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the 1970s television series, Kung Fu, which later had a 1990s sequel series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues...
.
Irvin directed the cult sci-fi westerns Oblivion
Oblivion (film)
Oblivion is a 1994 western science fiction dark comedy film by Full Moon Entertainment. Directed by Sam Irvin, the film stars Richard Joseph Paul, Andrew Divoff, George Takei, Julie Newmar, Musetta Vander, Isaac Hayes and Meg Foster....
and its sequel Oblivion 2: Backlash, starring Julie Newmar
Julie Newmar
Julie Newmar is an American actress, dancer and singer. Her most famous role is Catwoman in the Batman television series.-Early life:...
, George Takei
George Takei
George Hosato Takei Altman is an American actor, author, social activist and former civil politician. He is best known for his role in the television series Star Trek and its film spinoffs, in which he played Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the...
, Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...
, Meg Foster
Meg Foster
Megan "Meg" Foster is an American actress best known for her roles in the TV miniseries version of The Scarlet Letter, Ticket to Heaven, The Osterman Weekend, and They Live .-Life and career:...
and Maxwell Caulfield
Maxwell Caulfield
Maxwell Caulfield is a British film, stage, and television actor who is based in the United States, known for his roles as Michael Carrington in Grease 2 and as Miles Colby in The Colbys and its parent show Dynasty . He has more than 70 film, stage and television credits. He starred in Ronald F...
. (Oblivion won the Gold Award for Best Fantasy / Science Fiction Feature at Houston Worldfest.)
He also directed the Disney Channel time-travel pirate fantasy Magic Island
Magic Island (film)
Magic Island is a 1995 DTV film released by Moonbeam Entertainment, the kidvid division of Full Moon Entertainment.-Overview:Jack Carlisle is a disillusioned 13-year old boy. His mother is always away at work since his father left. He decides to run away, as he feels his mom won't miss him. As he...
starring Zachery Ty Bryan
Zachery Ty Bryan
Zachery Ty Bryan is an American actor and producer best known for his role as Brad Taylor on the American sitcom Home Improvement.-Personal life:...
and French Stewart
French Stewart
Milton French Stewart , better known by his stage name French Stewart, is an American actor, best known for his role as Harry Solomon on the 1990s sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun.-Early life:...
.
For television, Irvin directed several episodes of Comedy Central's Strip Mall
Strip Mall
Strip Mall is a situation comedy that aired on Comedy Central from June 2000 until March 2001.The series, a spoof of prime time soap operas, was set in Van Nuys, California which is series star/creator/executive producer Julie Brown's hometown. The titular "Strip Mall" was the fictional Plaza del...
starring Julie Brown
Julie Brown
Julie Ann Brown is an American actress, comedienne, screen/television writer, singer-songwriter, television director. Brown is perhaps best known for her work in the 1980s, where she often played a quintessential valley girl character...
, Cindy Williams
Cindy Williams
Cynthia Jane "Cindy" Williams is an American actress best known for starring in the television situation-comedy series Laverne & Shirley, in the role of "Shirley Feeney", and for her role as Laurie Henderson in the classic film American Graffiti.-Early life:Williams was born in Van Nuys,...
and Stella Stevens
Stella Stevens
Stella Stevens Stella Stevens Stella Stevens (born October 1, 1938 is an American film, television and stage actress, who began her acting career in 1959 and starred in such popular films as The Nutty Professor, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Silencers, The Ballad of Cable Hogue and The...
.
Irvin directed three full seasons of Dante's Cove
Dante's Cove
Dante's Cove is an American LGBT-oriented supernatural soap opera. The series airs on here!, an American gay-oriented network, and on Gay.com....
starring Tracy Scoggins
Tracy Scoggins
Tracy Dawn Scoggins is an American actress known for her roles as Cat Grant in the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Monica Colby in the 1980s prime time soap opera Dynasty, and its spin-off series The Colbys...
, Charlie David
Charlie David
Charles David Lubiniecki better known as Charlie David is a Canadian actor, who stars in the LGBT horror series Dante's Cove. He has also worked as a producer, writer, and TV host on a number of shows like F.Y.E!, SpyTV, Bump! and Crash Test Mommy...
, Jenny Shimizu
Jenny Shimizu
Jenny Lynn Shimizu is an American model and actress. She was born in San Jose, California.- Career :While working as a mechanic she was approached to model for the Calvin Klein CK1 fragrance ads and model Calvin Klein fashions...
, Thea Gill
Thea Gill
Thea Louise Gill is a Canadian actress best known for her starring role as Lindsay Peterson in the Showtime television series Queer as Folk.-Early life:...
and Reichen Lehmkuhl
Reichen Lehmkuhl
Reichen Lehmkuhl, , is an American former reality show winner, model, and occasional actor...
. (Irvin also co-wrote the series' international hit theme song, "Dying to Be with You").
Also for television, Irvin directed the opening of The 100th Anniversary of the World Series (2003), for Fox Television (a "through the ages" montage featuring the music of and starring Sheila E.
Sheila E.
Sheila Escovedo , known by her stage name Sheila E., is an American drummer and percussionist, perhaps best known for her work with Prince, George Duke and Ringo Starr.-Early life and Prince period:...
).
Irvin directed several segments for the 2004 Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
including a comedy sketch starring Eugene Levy as a scientist trying to improve the entertainment value of football. Other vignettes included Will Smith
Will Smith
Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...
, Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
and Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon
James Thomas "Jimmy" Fallon, Jr. is an American actor, comedian, singer, musician and television host. He currently hosts Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, a late-night talk show that airs Monday through Friday on NBC...
.
And, for the Fox Sports opening of the 2007 Sugar Bowl
Sugar Bowl
The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Sugar Bowl has been played annually since January 1, 1935, and celebrated its 75th anniversary on January 2, 2009...
, Irvin directed "Dueling Musicians," shot on the streets of New Orleans.
After directing several American-financed films in Romania, Irvin was invited by Romanian-based Mediapro Studios to direct Garcea si oltenii, a spin-off of Romania's most popular television show, starring a Monty Python-like sketch comedy group known as Vacante Mare. It became the highest grossing motion picture in Romanian history up to that time, beating previous record-holder, James Cameron's Titanic.
Also in Romania, Irvin directed I Will Return A Man, a rock opera performed by the Romanian rock group Vama Veche
Vama Veche
Vama Veche is a village in Romania on the Black Sea coast, near the border with Bulgaria, at 28.57 E longitude, 43.75 N latitude. It is part of the commune of Limanu and in 2002, it had a population of 178....
, broadcast live on television from the National Theater in Bucharest. It was an anti-war musical in the same genre as Pink Floyd's The Wall
The Wall
The Wall is the eleventh studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. Released as a double album on 30 November 1979, it was subsequently performed live with elaborate theatrical effects, and adapted into a feature film, Pink Floyd—The Wall.As with the band's previous three...
.
His credits as a producer include:
Associate producing Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
's Home Movies
Home movies
A home movie is part of the motion picture filmmaking process made by amateurs, often for viewing by family and friends. When the hobby began, home movies were produced on photographic film, but accessibility of video production with video cameras and low cost data storage devices has made the...
starring Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
, Nancy Allen
Nancy Allen (actress)
Nancy Anne Allen is a Golden Globe nominated American actress and cancer activist.Allen began an acting and modelling career as a child, and from the mid-1970s appeared in small film roles, most notably the anchor of Robert Zemeckis's ensemble comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand...
and Keith Gordon
Keith Gordon
Keith Gordon is an American actor and film director.-Life and career:Gordon was born in New York City, the son of Barbara, an actress, and Mark Gordon, an actor and stage director. He grew up in an atheist Jewish family and was inspired to become an actor at the age of twelve, after seeing James...
. (Irvin also served as Production Manager.)
Co-executive producing Bill Condon
Bill Condon
William "Bill" Condon is an American screenwriter and director. Condon is best known for directing and writing the critically acclaimed films Gods and Monsters, Chicago, Kinsey, and Dreamgirls. In 1998, Condon debuted as a screenwriter in Gods and Monsters, which won him his first Academy Award....
's Academy Award-winning film Gods and Monsters
Gods and Monsters
Gods and Monsters is a 1998 drama film that recounts the last days of the life of troubled film director James Whale, whose homosexuality is a central theme. It stars Ian McKellen as Whale, along with Brendan Fraser, Lynn Redgrave, Lolita Davidovich, and David Dukes...
starring Sir Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...
, Brendan Fraser
Brendan Fraser
Brendan James Fraser is a Canadian-American film and stage actor. Fraser portrayed Rick O'Connell in the three-part Mummy film series , and is known for his comedic and fantasy film leading roles in major Hollywood films, including Encino Man , George of the Jungle , Dudley Do-Right , Monkeybone ,...
and Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE was an English actress.A member of the well-known British family of actors, Redgrave trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962...
. (Irvin also co-directed the "Making of" documentary for the DVD, entitled The World of Gods and Monsters: A Journey with James Whale.)
Co-producing Greg Berlanti
Greg Berlanti
Greg Berlanti is an American television writer and producer.- Personal life :Berlanti was born in Rye, New York. His parents are Barbara Moller Berlanti and Eugene Berlanti. Greg has one sister, Dina and is the uncle of two nieces...
's The Broken Hearts Club starring Timothy Olyphant
Timothy Olyphant
Timothy David Olyphant is an American actor whose notable roles in television drama series include Deadwood as Seth Bullock, Justified as Raylan Givens, The Office as Danny Cordray, and Damages as Wes Krulik...
, Dean Cain
Dean Cain
Dean Cain is an American actor. He is most widely known for his role as Clark Kent/Superman in the popular American television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.-Early life:...
, Zach Braff
Zach Braff
Zachary Israel "Zach" Braff is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, comedian, and director. Braff first became known in 2001 for his role as Dr. John Dorian on the television series Scrubs, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.In 2004, Braff made his...
, John Mahoney
John Mahoney
John Mahoney is a British born American actor, known for playing Martin "Marty" Crane, the retired police officer, father of Kelsey Grammer's Dr...
, Nia Long
Nia Long
Nia Talita Long is an American actress and occasional music video director. She is best known for her roles in the television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Third Watch, and the films Boiler Room, Soul Food, Love Jones, The Best Man, Big Momma's House, Big Momma's House 2, Are We There...
and Justin Theroux.
Co-executive producing Bob Clark
Bob Clark
Benjamin "Bob" Clark was an American actor, director, screenwriter and producer best known for directing and writing the script with Jean Shepherd to the 1983 Christmas film A Christmas Story...
's I'll Remember April
I'll Remember April (film)
I'll Remember April is a 1999 film starring Pat Morita, Pam Dawber, Haley Joel Osment and Yuki Tokuhiro, directed by Bob Clark.- Plot :Four children capture a Japanese soldier who washes ashore during the Second World War....
starring Haley Joel Osment
Haley Joel Osment
Haley Joel Osment is an American actor. After a series of roles in television and film during the 1990s, including a small part in Forrest Gump playing Tom Hanks' title character’s son, Osment rose to fame with his performance as Cole Sear in M...
, Pat Morita
Pat Morita
Noriyuki "Pat" Morita was an American actor of Japanese descent who was well-known for playing the roles of Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi on Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the The Karate Kid movie series, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1984.-Early life:Pat...
, Mark Harmon
Mark Harmon
Mark Harmon is an American actor who has been starring in American television programs and films since the mid-1970s, after a career as a collegiate football player with the UCLA Bruins. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the CBS series NCIS.-Early life:Harmon was born Thomas...
, Pam Dawber
Pam Dawber
Pam Dawber is an American actress best known for her lead television sitcom roles as Mindy McConnell in Mork & Mindy and Samantha Russell in My Sister Sam .-Life and career:...
and Paul Dooley
Paul Dooley
-Personal life:Dooley was born Paul Dooley Brown in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the son of Ruth Irene , a homemaker, and Peter James Brown, a factory worker. Dooley was a cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. He joined the Navy before discovering acting while at...
. (Irvin also was the second-unit director.)
Co-executive producing Boltneck starring Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Rodney Reynolds is a Canadian film and television actor, best known for his roles in such films as National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Waiting..., The Amityville Horror, Just Friends, Definitely, Maybe, The Proposal, Buried, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Green Lantern.One of his best known...
, Shelley Duvall
Shelley Duvall
Shelley Alexis Duvall is an American film and television actress best known for her roles in The Shining, Popeye, Thieves Like Us and 3 Women....
, Matthew Lawrence
Matthew Lawrence
Matthew William Lawrence is an American actor known for his leading role in the movie Cheats with Trevor Fehrman and his role of Jack Hunter on the ABC sitcom Boy Meets World from 1997 to 2000, and his roles in movies such as The Hot Chick, The Comebacks, and Mrs...
and Judge Reinhold
Judge Reinhold
Judge Reinhold is an American actor, perhaps best known for co-starring in movies such as Beverly Hills Cop, Ruthless People, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and The Santa Clause trilogy.-Early life:...
.
Associate producing The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human
The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human
The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human is a 1999 American mockumentary directed and written by Jeff Abugov, and starring David Hyde Pierce, Carmen Electra, Lucy Liu, and Mackenzie Astin.-Plot summary:...
starring Mackenzie Astin
Mackenzie Astin
-Biography:Astin was born on May 12, 1973, in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Patty Duke and actor John Astin. His older half-brother is actor Sean Astin. He attended Ralph Waldo Emerson Middle School and University High School in Los Angeles, California...
, David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce is an American actor and comedian best known for playing psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier, for which he received many accolades including four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.-Early life:Pierce, the youngest of four siblings,...
, Carmen Elektra and Lucy Liu
Lucy Liu
Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress and film producer. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal , and has also appeared in several Hollywood films including Charlie's Angels, Chicago, Kill Bill, and Kung Fu Panda.-Early...
.
Co-producing Error in Judgement starring Joanna Pacula
Joanna Pacula
- Early life :Pacula was born in Tomaszów Lubelski, Poland to a pharmacist mother and an engineer father. In 1979, she graduated from the Aleksander Zelwerowicz State Theatre Academy.- Career :...
, Joe Montegna, Kate Jackson
Kate Jackson
Kate Jackson is an American actress, director, and producer, perhaps best known for her role as Sabrina Duncan in the popular 1970s television series Charlie's Angels...
and Paul Dooley
Paul Dooley
-Personal life:Dooley was born Paul Dooley Brown in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the son of Ruth Irene , a homemaker, and Peter James Brown, a factory worker. Dooley was a cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. He joined the Navy before discovering acting while at...
.
Co-producing When Time Expires starring Richard Greico, Mark Hamill
Mark Hamill
Mark Richard Hamill is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars. More recently, he has received acclaim for his voice work, in such roles as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Firelord...
and Chad Everett
Chad Everett
Chad Everett is an American actor who has appeared in over 40 films and television series but is probably best known for his role as Dr. Joe Gannon in the 1970s television drama Medical Center.-Early life:...
.
Associate producing Sticky Fingers
Sticky Fingers
-Personnel:The Rolling Stones*Mick Jagger – lead vocals, acoustic guitar on "Dead Flowers", electric guitar on "Sway", percussion*Keith Richards – electric guitar, six & twelve string acoustic guitar, backing vocals...
starring Helen Slater
Helen Slater
Helen Rachel Slater is an American actress and singer-songwriter.She appeared in the title role in the 1984 film Supergirl. In the following years she starred in several very successful comedy-drama films such as Ruthless People, The Secret of My Success, and City Slickers...
, Melanie Mayron
Melanie Mayron
Melanie Joy Mayron is an American actress and director of film and television. Mayron is best known for portraying the role of photographer Melissa Steadman on the ABC drama Thirtysomething.-Biography:...
, Eileen Brennan
Eileen Brennan
Eileen Brennan is an American actress of film, television, and theater. Brennan is best known for her role as Doreen Lewis in Private Benjamin for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She reprised the role in the TV adaption and won a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy...
, Carol Kane
Carol Kane
Carolyn Laurie "Carol" Kane is an American actress. Kane has worked on the stage, on the screen and in television. She appeared on the television series Taxi in the early 1980s, as the wife of the character played by Andy Kaufman. She received two Emmy Awards for her work...
, Christopher Guest
Christopher Guest
Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest , better known as Christopher Guest, is an American screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor and comedian. He is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed and starred in several improvisational "mockumentary" films that...
and Loretta Devine
Loretta Devine
Loretta Devine is an American stage, film and television actress known for her roles on Boston Public, Grey's Anatomy, and Eli Stone. She also provided her voice for the stop motion animated television series The PJs. Devine is a NAACP Image Award and Emmy award winning actress.-Early life:Devine...
.
Producing The First Time starring Tim Choate
Tim Choate
Tim Choate was an American actor who starred in a number of film and television roles on series such as Dragnet and Babylon 5....
, Wendie Jo Sperber
Wendie Jo Sperber
Wendie Jo Sperber was an American actress, best known for her performances in the films I Wanna Hold Your Hand , Bachelor Party and Back to the Future as well as the television sitcom Bosom Buddies .-Life:Sperber was born in Hollywood and aimed for a performing-arts career from high school onward...
, Wallace Shawn
Wallace Shawn
Wallace Michael Shawn , sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, author, voice artist, and intellectual. His best-known film roles include Wally Shawn in My Dinner with Andre , Vizzini in The Princess Bride , and debate teacher Mr...
, Cathryn Damon
Cathryn Damon
Cathryn Lee Damon was an American actress, best known for her roles on television sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s....
and Jane Badler
Jane Badler
Jane Badler is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Diana, the chief antagonist in NBC's science fiction TV series, V, between 1983-85. Badler also appeared in ABC's "reimagined" version of V in 2011, again playing an alien named Diana, who this time is the mother of...
. Creative Consultant: Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
.
Irvin's first book, Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise, was published by Simon & Schuster (November 2010) and selected by Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus . Kirkus serves the book and literary trade sector, including libraries, publishers, literary and film agents, film and TV producers and booksellers. Kirkus Reviews is published on the first and 15th of each month...
as one of the "Best Biographies of 2010." Acclaimed by columnist Liz Smith
Liz Smith (journalist)
Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Smith is an American gossip columnist. She is known as The Grand Dame of Dish.- Early life and career :...
as "a smashing work" and by entertainer Michael Feinstein
Michael Feinstein
Michael Jay Feinstein is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist. He is an interpreter of, and an anthropologist and archivist for, the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for celebrating American musical theatre songs...
as "one of the best showbiz bios I've ever read," this comprehensive biography covers the life and career of the legendary singer-actress-composer-arranger-author-fashionista Kay Thompson
Kay Thompson
Kay Thompson was an American author, composer, musician, actress and singer. She is best known as the creator of the Eloise children's books.-Background:Catherine Louise Fink was born in St...
. She was the mentor/best friend of Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, the vocal guru to Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
and Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, and the godmother/Svengali to Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
(who recreated Thompson's nightclub act in the 2009 Tony Award-winning event Liza's at the Palace).
In connection with his research on the life of Thompson, Irvin served as a historical consultant on Liza's at the Palace; he produced and annotated the 2009 3-CD box set compilation Think Pink! A Kay Thompson Party (Sepia Records); and he appeared in and consulted on Paramount Home Entertainment's documentary Kay Thompson: Think Pink! (an extra included in Paramount's Centennial Collection DVD edition of Stanley Donen's Funny Face
Funny Face
Funny Face is an American musical film released in 1957 in VistaVision Technicolor, with assorted songs by George and Ira Gershwin. The film was written by Leonard Gershe and directed by Stanley Donen. It stars Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, and Kay Thompson...
starring Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
, Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
, and Kay Thompson
Kay Thompson
Kay Thompson was an American author, composer, musician, actress and singer. She is best known as the creator of the Eloise children's books.-Background:Catherine Louise Fink was born in St...
).
Between projects, Irvin is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts where he teaches graduate courses on directing.
He resides in Los Angeles with Gary Bowers, his partner since 1982.
Filmography
As director- Double Negative (1985)
- Guilty as Charged (1991)
- Acting on Impulse (1993) (TV)
- OblivionOblivion (film)Oblivion is a 1994 western science fiction dark comedy film by Full Moon Entertainment. Directed by Sam Irvin, the film stars Richard Joseph Paul, Andrew Divoff, George Takei, Julie Newmar, Musetta Vander, Isaac Hayes and Meg Foster....
(1994) - Out There (1995) (TV)
- Magic IslandMagic Island (film)Magic Island is a 1995 DTV film released by Moonbeam Entertainment, the kidvid division of Full Moon Entertainment.-Overview:Jack Carlisle is a disillusioned 13-year old boy. His mother is always away at work since his father left. He decides to run away, as he feels his mom won't miss him. As he...
(1995) (V) - Oblivion 2: Backlash (1996)
- Kiss of a Stranger (1999)
- The World of Gods and Monsters: A Journey with James Whale (1999) (V)
- Strip MallStrip MallStrip Mall is a situation comedy that aired on Comedy Central from June 2000 until March 2001.The series, a spoof of prime time soap operas, was set in Van Nuys, California which is series star/creator/executive producer Julie Brown's hometown. The titular "Strip Mall" was the fictional Plaza del...
(2000) (TV series) - Elvira's Haunted HillsElvira's Haunted HillsElvira's Haunted Hills is a sequel to Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, directed by Sam Irvin. The film premiered at the International Rocky Horror Fan Convention on June 23, 2001.-Synopsis:...
(2001) - Garcea si oltenii (2001)
- A Very Cool Christmas (2004) (TV)
- Deadly SkiesDeadly SkiesDeadly Skies is a 2005 joint American/Canadian sci-fi television film starring Antonio Sabato, Jr., Rae Dawn Chong, Dominic Zamprogna, Michael Boisvert, Rob LaBelle and Michael Moriarty. The plot concerns the effort of two astronomers and two military men to stop the threat of a giant asteroid on a...
(2005) (TV) - Fat Rose and Squeaky (2006)
- Dante's CoveDante's CoveDante's Cove is an American LGBT-oriented supernatural soap opera. The series airs on here!, an American gay-oriented network, and on Gay.com....
(12 episodes, 2005–2007) (TV)
As producer
- Home MoviesHome Movies (film)Home Movies is a 1980 independent film directed by Brian De Palma and starring Kirk Douglas, Nancy Allen, Vincent Gardenia, Keith Gordon, Theresa Saldana, and Gerrit Graham.-Plot:...
(1980) - The First Time (1983)
- Double Negative (1985)
- Sticky Fingers (1988)
- When Time Expires (1997) (TV)
- Error in Judgment (1998)
- Gods and MonstersGods and MonstersGods and Monsters is a 1998 drama film that recounts the last days of the life of troubled film director James Whale, whose homosexuality is a central theme. It stars Ian McKellen as Whale, along with Brendan Fraser, Lynn Redgrave, Lolita Davidovich, and David Dukes...
(1998) - The World of Gods and Monsters: A Journey with James Whale (1999) (V)
- I'll Remember AprilI'll Remember April (film)I'll Remember April is a 1999 film starring Pat Morita, Pam Dawber, Haley Joel Osment and Yuki Tokuhiro, directed by Bob Clark.- Plot :Four children capture a Japanese soldier who washes ashore during the Second World War....
(1999) - Ancient Evil: Scream of the MummyAncient Evil: Scream of the MummyAncient Evil: Scream of the Mummy is a Horror movie, released in 2000, directed by David DeCoteau. The movie is also known as Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy 2.. It was followed by a sequel, Ancient Evil 2: Guardian of the Underworld, released in 2005. In England, the film was the subject of a...
(1999) - The Mating Habits of the Earthbound HumanThe Mating Habits of the Earthbound HumanThe Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human is a 1999 American mockumentary directed and written by Jeff Abugov, and starring David Hyde Pierce, Carmen Electra, Lucy Liu, and Mackenzie Astin.-Plot summary:...
(1999) - The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000)
- Boltneck (2000)
- Defending the Super$ave (2001)
- Just Can't Get EnoughJust Can't Get Enough (film)Just Can't Get Enough is a 2001 film based on the true story of the rise and fall of the popular male dance revue Chippendales. It was directed and written by Dave Payne, and stars Jonathan Aube, Shelley Malil and John Paul Pitoc....
(2001)
As actor
- Guilty as Charged (1991)
- OblivionOblivion (film)Oblivion is a 1994 western science fiction dark comedy film by Full Moon Entertainment. Directed by Sam Irvin, the film stars Richard Joseph Paul, Andrew Divoff, George Takei, Julie Newmar, Musetta Vander, Isaac Hayes and Meg Foster....
(1994) - Magic IslandMagic Island (film)Magic Island is a 1995 DTV film released by Moonbeam Entertainment, the kidvid division of Full Moon Entertainment.-Overview:Jack Carlisle is a disillusioned 13-year old boy. His mother is always away at work since his father left. He decides to run away, as he feels his mom won't miss him. As he...
(1995) (V) - Oblivion 2: Backlash (1996)
- Garcea si oltenii (2001)
- Dante's CoveDante's CoveDante's Cove is an American LGBT-oriented supernatural soap opera. The series airs on here!, an American gay-oriented network, and on Gay.com....
(1 episode, 2005) (TV)
As writer
- Double Negative (1985)
- Sweet Deception (1998) (TV)
- Kiss of a Stranger (1999)
As author
- Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise (published by Simon & Schuster, 2010)
External links
- Kay Thompson biography book, KayThompson: From Funny Face to Eloise, by Sam Irvin, published by Simon & Schuster. This website features exclusive extras including exhaustively researched lists of Thompson's credits in various mediums.
- Sam Irvin at IMDB
- Audio Interview at Your Video Store Shelf