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Photo of Antonio Margheriti

Antonio Margheriti

Director, Writer, Producer, Actor, Additional Credits
Born September 19, 1930Died November 4, 2002 (72 years)
​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Antonio Margheriti (19 September 1930 – 4 November 2002), also known under the pseudonym Anthony M. Dawson, was a prolific Italian filmmaker. He was born in Rome and died in 2002 from a heart attack in Monterosi, Viterbo, near Rome at the age of 72.

Margheriti started out in the Italian film industry in 1956 as a screenwriter. He started directing in 1960, his first film being "Spacemen" (aka "Assignment Outer Space"). Margheriti is known for his science fiction, horror, spaghetti western and action movies. He was the director of such cult movies as Cannibal Apocalypse, Castle of Blood, The Virgin of Nuremberg, Assignment Outer Space, Wild Wild Planet, Naked You Die, Mr. Super Invisible, The Last Hunter, Battle of the Worlds and numerous others. Most of his films were directed under the pseudonym of Anthony M. Dawson. He stopped using his real name in the USA early in his career, when he realized the English translation of the name "Antonio Margheriti" was "Anthony Daisies", and he thought it sounded too effeminate.

He was the only Italian director who worked directly for American production companies like MGM, United Artists, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, etc. with films like: Yor, the Hunter from the Future, Take a Hard Ride, Killer Fish, etc. Margheriti said his action/adventure films were his favorites, and his least favorite movies were the sword-and-sandal peplum films he made in the early 1960s (such as "Devil of the Desert" and "Giants of Rome").

For years, director Richard Morrissey disputed Margheriti's claim that he had directed "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein" in the early 1970s, saying that Margheriti was mostly just a technical advisor on that film. Morrissey said Margheriti did however direct a very, very brief segment of the movie (mostly the scenes involving the two children roaming around in the lab).

Margheriti worked with many well-known genre actors such as Lee Van Cleef, John Saxon, Claude Rains, John Morghen, Klaus Kinski, Barbara Steele, Reb Brown, Donald Pleasence, Yul Brynner, David Warbeck, Luciano Pigozzi, Marvin Hagler, Terence Hill, Fred Williamson, Christopher Lee and many others. Most of his later films were shot in the Philippines (especially his war films). Margheriti also collaborated on the special effects in two Italian cult films which he did not direct, Sergio Leone's "Fistful of Dynamite" (1971) and Aldo Lado's "The Humanoid" (1979).

Margheriti retired from filmmaking in 1996 at age 66. He died in 2002 of natural causes. Margheriti's son Edoardo and his daughter Antonella are both also involved in filmmaking. Eli Roth's character in the 2009 Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Bastards took Margheriti as his namesake.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Antonio Margheriti,  licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies & Shows on Plex

  • Flesh for Frankenstein
  • Blood for Dracula
  • Cannibals in the Streets
  • Castle of Blood
  • Killer Fish
  • The Long Hair of Death
  • And God Said to Cain...
  • Seven Deaths in the Cats Eyes
  • Treasure Island
  • Battle of the Worlds
  • Assignment: Outer Space
  • Death Rage
  • The Young, the Evil and the Savage
  • The Ark of the Sun God
  • Anthar l'invincibile

Known For

  • Cannibals in the Streets
  • Flesh for Frankenstein
  • Yor: The Hunter from the Future
  • Blood for Dracula
  • Castle of Blood
  • Killer Fish
  • The Long Hair of Death
  • And God Said to Cain...
  • Take a Hard Ride
  • Horror Castle
  • The Wild, Wild Planet
  • Code Name: Wild Geese
  • The Stranger and the Gunfighter
  • The Last Hunter
  • Battle of the Worlds
  • Assignment: Outer Space
  • Death Rage
  • The Young, the Evil and the Savage
  • Web of the Spider
  • Alien from the Deep
  • Snow Devils
  • War Between the Planets
  • The War of the Planets
  • Vengeance

Antonio Margheriti Filmography

1983
The World of Yor (TV Series)
1983
1980
1978
1975
Rudeness · as Screenplay
1974
1972
1972
Treasure Island · as Screenplay
1972
1971
Web of the Spider · as Screenplay
1970
1969
1968
Vengeance · as Screenplay
1968
Io ti amo · as Screenplay
1968
1964
1964
1963
Horror Castle · as Screenplay
1958
Legs of Gold · as Screenplay

2002
'Cannibal Apocalypse' Redux · as Inspector (uncredited)
1981
Car Crash · as Racing Official (uncredited)

1979
The Humanoid · as Special Effects Supervisor
1974
Blood for Dracula · as Assistant Director
1973
Flesh for Frankenstein · as Special Effects Makeup Artist
1973
Flesh for Frankenstein · as Second Unit Director
1973
1973
1963
The Fall of Rome · as Story
1962
War Gods of Babylon · as Second Unit Director
1958
Legs of Gold · as Co-Director

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