John 'Bud' Cardos

Versatile and underrated B-movie Renaissance man John "Bud" Cardos was born in 1929 in St. Louis, Missouri. His family has interesting roots in the entertainment industry: his cousin Spiros Cardos worked at Twentieth Century-Fox and his father and uncle managed the lavish Graumann's Egyptian and Chinese theaters. Cardos began his lengthy and extensive show business career as a child actor in 'Hal Roach' (qv)'s 40s "Our Gang" comedies. He was a rodeo rider in his teen years, and worked as an animal wrangler and bird handler on 'Alfred Hitchcock' (qv)'s outstanding killer animal classic _The Birds (1963)_ (qv). Cardos achieved his greatest cult popularity acting in several entertainingly trashy exploitation features for legendary Grade-Z schlockmeister 'Al Adamson' (qv): he's especially memorable as Mohawk-sporting Native American biker Firewater in the splendidly sleazy _Satan's Sadists (1969)_ (qv) and as crazed half-breed Joe Lightfoot in the gritty (and often incoherent) western _Five Bloody Graves (1969)_ (qv). He got into stunt work, and among the films Cardos has performed stunts in are _Nightmare in Wax (1969)_ (qv), the trippy hippie gem _Psych-Out (1968)_ (qv), _The Savage Seven (1968)_ (qv), _The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971)_ (qv) and _Jud (1971)_ (qv). Cardos tackled second unit director chores for 'Sam Peckinpah' (qv)'s magnificent landmark western _The Wild Bunch (1969)_ (qv). He was a production manager on many movies; they include the creepy _Deathdream (1974)_ (qv), _Killers Three (1968)_ (qv), _The Rebel Rousers (1970)_ (qv), _Lash of Lust (1972)_ (qv), _Hell's Bloody Devils (1970)_ (qv) and _Deadwood '76 (1965)_ (qv). Cardos made his directorial debut with the blaxploitation item _The Red, White, and Black (1970)_ (qv). His other directorial efforts include the superior revolt-of-nature horror winner _Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)_ (qv), the not-half-bad sci-fi/horror opus _The Dark (1979)_ (qv) and the nifty zombie flick _Forbidden World (1982)_ (qv). Outside of his substantial film work, Cardos also does Western art.::woodyanders