Coleman Francis

Coleman Francis, born in Greer County, Oklahoma, in 1919, moved to Texas during the Great Depression, then went to Hollywood in 1940 to begin an acting career. After serving during the Second World War, he took small, often uncredited parts in films from the late 1940s into the early 1970s, among them This Island Earth (1955) and Motorpsycho (1965). His first credited role came in 1958, as a detective in Stakeout on Dope Street. That year he also played Matthew Harrison Brady in a Phoenix staging of Inherit the Wind, opposite Sidney Blackmer. In 1959 he partnered with welder Anthony Cardoza on three features he wrote and directed: Red Zone Cuba (1966), The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961) and The Skydivers (1963). Later those films gained cult status through Mystery Science Theater 3000, and Paste magazine's Jim Vorel called him the worst director of all time. He died in 1973.