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 Spyros Skouras 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's 1940s "Our Gang" comedies.
He was a rodeo rider in his teen years, and worked as an animal
wrangler and bird handler on
Alfred Hitchcock's outstanding
killer animal classic Die Vögel (1963).
Cardos achieved his greatest cult popularity acting in several
entertainingly trashy exploitation features for legendary Grade-Z
schlockmeister Al Adamson: he's especially
memorable as Mohawk-sporting Native American biker Firewater in the
splendidly sleazy
Die Sadisten des Satans (1969) and as
crazed half-breed Joe Lightfoot in the gritty (and often incoherent)
western
5 blutige Gräber (1969). He
got into stunt work, and among the films Cardos performed stunts in
are Das Wachsfigurenkabinett des Grauens (1969), the
trippy hippie gem Psych-Out (1968),
Die grausamen Sieben (1968),
Der Mann mit den zwei Köpfen (1971),
and Jud (1971). Cardos tackled second unit
director chores for Sam Peckinpah's
magnificent landmark western
The Wild Bunch - Sie kannten kein Gesetz (1969). He was a
production manager on many movies; they include the creepy
Dead of Night (1974),
Killers Three (1968),
Rebel Riders (1970),
Lash of Lust (1972),
Hell's Bloody Devils (1970),
and Deadwood '76 (1965).
Cardos made
his directorial debut with the blaxploitation item
The Red, White, and Black (1970).
His other directorial efforts include the superior revolt-of-nature
horror winner
Mörderspinnen (1977),
the not-half-bad sci-fi/horror opus
The Dark (1979), and the nifty zombie
flick Mutant - Das Grauen aus dem All (1982).
Outside of his substantial film work, Cardos also did Western art. He died at age 91 on December 31, 2020 in Acton, California.
