David F. Friedman
Biography
David F. Friedman was an American filmmaker and producer of exploitation movies, known for the nudie cuties and sexploitation pictures he turned out from the 1950s onward. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, he spent part of his childhood around traveling carnivals and worked as a projectionist in Buffalo before his Army service in the Second World War, where meeting the exploitation pioneer Kroger Babb drew him into films. After a stint in marketing for Paramount, he founded his own company in the 1950s, starting with nudist-colony films such as Goldilocks and The Three Bares and moving into rougher sexploitation features like The Defilers and The Lustful Turk. He produced Herschell Gordon Lewis's Blood Feast (1963), often called the first gore film, and later Love Camp 7 and Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS. Friedman died in 2011.
87years old at death
- Born Birmingham
- Died Anniston
- Star sign: CapricornThe sign runs December 22 to January 19
- Also credited as David Frank Friedman
Movie Career
- Films
- 3
- Career span
- 47 years1963 to 2010
Every film, newest first
- 2010Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of GoreIMDb rating 7.1
- 1997An American Werewolf in ParisIMDb rating 5.1
- 1963Blood FeastIMDb rating 5.0
Genres
Share
Did you know?!
A first
Friedman went on to produce Blood Feast, a 1963 American exploitation film. It is often considered the first splatter film, or the first gore film.
About the name
Friedman produced Love Camp 7 and Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS, two early Nazi exploitation films. On the second, he was credited as Herman Traeger instead of using his real name.
Big break
During his army service, Friedman met Kroger Babb, a pioneer of exploitation films. That encounter sparked his interest in movies.
A change of course
Before he served in the US Army during the Second World War, Friedman worked in Buffalo as a film projectionist.
A change of course
In the early 1990s, Something Weird Video, a Seattle company owned by Mike Vraney, started re-issuing much of Friedman's work on videocassette, which got him noticed by a new generation of collectors of exploitation and b-movies.
David F. Friedman movies on Netflix
Most often with
Four actors appear in two of them each. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Herschell Gordon Lewis's page
Jerome Eden2 films together, 1963 to 2010
Jerome Eden's page
Connie Mason's page
Mal Arnold2 films together, 1963 to 2010
Mal Arnold's page
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.