Writer/director/producer Richard Compton was born on March 2, 1938, in
Philadelphia, PA. He began his career in the early 1960s making
government propaganda movies for the United States Information Agency.
His debut feature "The French Way", was never released in America. Compton
followed this film with the nifty biker flick
Die Rocker von der Boston Street (1970), which was
the first movie to be released by
Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Compton
then did the excellent and unjustly overlooked psycho Vietnam veterans
exploitation winner
Ein mörderisches Team (1971).
He scored his biggest hit with the outstanding cult classic
Macon County Line (1974); the
unexpected enormous box-office success of this movie begot a handful of
similar Southern-fried "don't go down to Dixie" drive-in pictures,
which include
Vergewaltigt hinter Gittern (1976),
Jagdzeit in Texas (1976),
and
Nightmare - Im Lager der gequälten Frauen (1976).
Both the tepid semi-sequel
Wild Drivers (1975)
starring then-unknowns Nick Nolte and
Don Johnson and the strictly so-so
post-nuke sci-fi survivalist opus
Zum Überleben verdammt (1979) were regrettably
mediocre, although Stadt in Angst (1977)
was a solid and gripping thriller. In the early 1980s Compton began
directing more and more for television; he's done several made-for-TV
pictures and numerous episodes of such TV shows as
Peacemakers (2003),
J.A.G. - Im Auftrag der Ehre (1995),
Die einsamen Schützen (2001),
Charmed: Zauberhafte Hexen (1998),
Sliders - Das Tor in eine fremde Dimension (1995),
Profiler (1996),
Babylon 5 (1993),
L.A. Law: Staranwälte, Tricks, Prozesse (1986),
Der Polizeichef - Eis im Blut (1991),
Hör' mal, wer da hämmert (1991),
Baywatch - Die Rettungsschwimmer von Malibu (1989),
Miami Vice (1984),
Raumschiff Enterprise: Das nächste Jahrhundert (1987),
Der Equalizer (1985),
Polizeirevier Hill Street (1981),
Hotel (1983) and
T. J. Hooker (1982).
Compton also
did some acting in the 1960s and '70s; his acting credits include guest
spots on two episodes of the original
Raumschiff Enterprise (1966) TV show and the
enjoyably trashy
The Sadistic Hypnotist (1969).
He was married to actress
Veronica Cartwright. He died at age
69 on August 11, 2007.
