Writer/actor/producer Wes Bishop frequently collaborated with
exploitation filmmaker Lee Frost on a bunch of
enjoyably down-'n'-dirty drive-in features made throughout the 1960s
and 1970s. Bishop was born as Charles Pelletieri on September 12, 1932,
in Nashville, Tennessee. He served a hitch in the US army as a
paratrooper and intelligence officer in the Korean War. He and Frost
first crossed paths in the early 1960s on the tongue-in-cheek softcore
horror comedy
Gräfin Frankensteins Liebestempel (1962).
Their subsequent cinematic ventures include the trailblazing
Nazisploitation outing
Love Camp 7 (1969), the gritty
Chain Gang Women (1971), the
passable biker opus
Chrom und heisses Leder (1971),
the hilariously campy
Das Ding mit den 2 Köpfen (1972),
the immensely fun Sadomona - Insel der teuflischen Frauen (1974),
the gnarly blaxploitation winner
The Black Gestapo (1975) and
the rowdy redneck romp
Dixie Dynamite - Mädchen scharf wie Dynamit (1976). In
addition, Frost often had sizable supporting roles in their movies;
he's especially memorable as trouble-making convict Coleman in "Chain
Gang Women" and sleazy mobster Ernest in "The Black Gestapo." In
addition, Frost and Bishop wrote the witty and inspired script for
Jack Starrett's terrific
Satan-worship/car-chase horror/action treat
Vier im rasenden Sarg (1975);
Bishop also produced the picture and appears in a minor part as a
small-town deputy.
Bishop did guest spots on such TV series as
Perry Mason (1957),
Combat! (1962),
Bonanza (1959) and
The High Chaparral (1967).
Wes Bishop died at age 60 from a liver ailment on June 25, 1993.
