Arthur Marks

Writer/director/producer 'Arthur Marks' (qv) was born on August 2, 1927 in Los Angeles, California. His grandparents acted in silent pictures and his father, 'Dave Marks' (qv), was an assistant director and production manager at MGM whose credits include _The Wizard of Oz (1939)_ (qv) and _Easter Parade (1948)_ (qv).Arthur began his film career as a young boy working as both an extra and bit actor in movies in the 1930s. He attended the University of Southern California and got a job working in the production department at MGM. However, it was in the 1950s that his career really took off: He was an assistant director for the TV shows _Broken Arrow (1956)_ (qv), _The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955)_ (qv) and _Treasury Men in Action (1950)_ (qv) and worked on the immensely popular _Perry Mason (1957)_ (qv) TV series as both a producer and director. He eventually began directing enjoyably trashy low-budget drive-in exploitation features in the 1970s; he made his theatrical film debut with the 1970 movie _Togetherness (1970)_ (qv). He truly hit his stride, though, with several hugely entertaining blaxploitation outings: The rousing crime thriller _Detroit 9000 (1973)_ (qv) (this particular picture was re-released in theaters in 1998 by 'Quentin Tarantino' (qv)), the delightfully breezy 'Pam Grier' (qv) vehicle _Friday Foster (1975)_ (qv), the bang-up 'Fred Williamson' (qv) action flick _Bucktown (1975)_ (qv), the atmospheric horror winner _J.D.'s Revenge (1976)_ (qv), and the amusingly goofy comedy _The Monkey Hu$tle (1976)_ (qv). His other films as director include the gritty film noir _Bonnie's Kids (1972)_ (qv), the sleazy serial killer opus _The Roommates (1973)_ (qv), and the silly soft-core romp _Class of '74 (1972)_ (qv). In addition, he served as production manager on _The Centerfold Girls (1974)_ (qv) and _Wonder Women (1973)_ (qv). He often produced the films he directed.Marks ran the independent outfit General Film Corp. in the 1970s, which picked up pictures like 'William Girdler' (qv)'s _The Get-Man (1974)_ (qv) and the notorious cult exploitation gem _The Candy Snatchers (1973)_ (qv) for theatrical distribution. Outside of his movie work, he has directed episodes of such TV shows as _The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)_ (qv), _Starsky and Hutch (1975)_ (qv) and _I Spy (1965)_ (qv)He and his wife Phyllis Marie Lehman had four children; his sons 'Beau Marks' (qv) and 'Paul Marks' (qv) are both successful film and television producers. Marks died at age 92 at his home in Woodland Hills, California on November 13, 2019.::woodyanders