JIMMY SANGSTER - Screenwriter for the Classic Hammer Horror Films of the 1950s and 1960s
British screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, who scripted many of the classic Hammer horror films of the 1950s and 1960s, died on August 19, 2011. He was 83. Sangster was born in North Wales on December 2, 1927. He began working in films in the late 1940 as an assistant director on such films as “The Adventures of Jane” (1949), "Man in Black” (1949), “Dick Barton Strikes Back” (1949), “Room To Let” (1950), “Whispering Smith vs. Scotland Yard” (1952), “Spaceways” (1953), “The Saint’s Girl Friday” (1953), “Terror Street” (1953), and “Paid To Kill” (1954). He worked as a production manager over the next several years, and also scripted Hammer's 1956 science fiction film “X The Unknown”. He also wrote Hammer's initial forays in the realm of classic horror films, scripting “The Curse of Frankenstein” (1957), “Horror of Dracula” (1958), “The Revenge of Frankenstein” (1958), “The Snorkel” (1958), “Blood of the Vampire” (1958), “The Crawling Eye” (1958), “Jack the Ripper” (1959), “The Man Who Could Cheat Death” (1959), “The Mummy” (1959), “The Brides of Dracula” (1960), “The Hellfire Club” (1961), “The Terror of the Tongs” (1961), “The Pirates of Blood River” (1962), “Paranoiac” (1963), “The Devil-Ship Pirates” (1964), “Dracula, Prince of Darkness” (1966), “Deadlier Than the Male” (1967), and “Crescendo” (1970). He produced and wrote the thrillers “Scream of Fear” (1961), “Maniac” (1963), “Nightmare” (1964), “Hysteria” (1965), “The Nanny” (1965) and “The Anniversary” (1968) both starring Bette Davis, and “Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?” (1972). He wrote and directed several of Hammer’s new wave of horror film, including “The Horror of Frankenstein” (1970), “Lust For A
Vampire” (1971), and “Fear In the Night” (1972). Sangster worked in Hollywood from the early 1970s scripting the tele-films “A Taste of Evil” (1971), “Scream, Pretty Peggy” (1973), “Maneater” (1973), “Good Against Evil” (1977), “The Billion Dollar Threat” (1979), “Ebony, Ivory and Jade” (1979), and “Once Upon A Spy” (1980). His other television credits include episodes of “Circle of Fear”/ “Ghost Story”, “The Magician”, “Banacek”, “The Six Million Dollar Man”, “Kolchak: The Night Stalker”, “Wonder Woman”, and “Beyond Belief !!”. He also scripted the films “The Legacy” (1978), “Phobia” (1980), and “The Devil and Max Devlin” (1981). His survivors include his wife, actress Mary Peach, star of "The Projected Man".