George Eastman (actor)

George Eastman
Born Luigi Montefiori
(1942-08-16) August 16, 1942
Genoa, Italy
Years active 1966-present

George Eastman (born Luigi Montefiori; August 16, 1942) is an Italian B-movie actor and screenwriter well known for his frequent collaborations with notorious director Joe D'Amato. He is most famous for his role as the insane, cannibalistic serial killer Klaus Wortmann in the gory 1980 horror film Antropophagus (aka The Grim Reaper). He also played a similar role in its 1981 follow-up, Absurd. Both films were directed by D'Amato and written by Eastman.

Career

Eastman was born in 1942 in Genoa, Italy and studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome and at the Drama School held of Alessandro Fersen.[1] He took his Americanized alias "George Eastman" when he was cast as a "heavy" in many spaghetti westerns made in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1972 he played the villain in The Call of the Wild which starred Charlton Heston and was directed by Ken Annakin.

Eastman later became a regular performer in many movies directed by Joe D'Amato, for whom he also wrote many screenplays. Their first work together was Cormack of the Mounties (aka Giubbe Rosse) in 1975.[1]

He was a very familiar face in Italian B-cinema in the early 1980s, being generally cast as a villain, thanks to his towering height (he is 6'9" tall) and his dark and menacing looks. He co-starred in many Italian futuristic sci-fi films such as Bronx Warriors, The New Barbarians, Endgame, Ironmaster, 2020 Texas Gladiators and After the Fall of New York. His most famous movie is the gory horror film Anthropophagous, directed by Joe D'Amato in 1980, in which he played the monster. He also starred in D'Amato's Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, Porno Holocaust and Absurd (aka Anthropophagous 2).

Two of his greatest major villain roles were in Rabid Dogs (aka Kidnapped, 1974) and Blastfighter (1984). He appeared in Paramount's 1985 biblical film King David playing Goliath in David's childhood flashback scene. In 1986, he performed as Stefano in the movie Regalo di Natale, directed by Pupi Avati. He also wrote and directed the sci-fi film Metamorphosis (produced by Joe D'Amato) in 1990, after which he quit acting to concentrate on his screenwriting. He is now a well regarded author in Italian television and only acts occasionally. (In 2003, he returned to acting in La rivincita di Natale, a film directed by Pupi Avati.)

Partial filmography

Title Year Credited as Role Notes Refs.
Actor Screenwriter Story author
Bootleggers 1969 Yes McGowan "The Irish" [2]
Fellini Satyricon 1969 Yes The Minotaur [3]
Ben and Charlie 1972 Yes Charlie [4]
The Call of the Wild 1972 Yes Black Burton [5]
Baba Yaga 1973 Yes Charlie [6]
Scalawag 1973 Yes Don Aragon [7]
Blood and Bullets 1976 Yes Dan Caputo, "Knell" [8]
Keoma 1976 Yes Yes [9][10]
Canne mozze 1977 Yes [11]
Antropophagus 1980 Yes Yes Nikos Karamanlis Also producer [12][13][14]
Porno Holocaust 1981 Yes Professor Lemoine [15][16]
Ironmaster 1983 Yes Vood [17][18]
The New Barbarians 1983 Yes One [19][20]
Blastfighter 1984 Yes Tom [21][22]
King David 1985 Yes Goliath
The Barbarians 1987 Yes Jacko [23]
Il deserto del fuoco 1997 Yes Television film [24]
Rabid Dogs 1998 Yes Trentadue / Thirty-two [25]
2020 Texas Gladiators N/A Yes Yes [26][27]
2019, After the Fall of New York N/A Yes [28]
Emanuelle's Revenge N/A Yes Carlo [29][30]
The Cobra N/A Yes Crane [31]
Django Shoots First N/A Yes Jesse Kluster [32]
Emanuelle Around the World N/A Yes [33]
L'Inspettore Giusti N/A Yes [34]
My Name Is Pecos N/A Yes Member of Kline's group [35]
Bill il taciturno N/A Yes Bill [36]
Master Stroke N/A Yes Western actor [37]

Screenplays

  • Giubbe rosse (1974) aka Red Coats, aka Cormack of the Mounties, directed by Joe D'Amato
  • The Great Alligator River (1979) directed by Sergio Martino (Eastman got plot credit only)
  • Sesso nero/ Black Sex (1980) directed by Joe D'Amato
  • Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980) directed by Joe D'Amato (Eastman also co-starred in this film)
  • Absurd/Rosso sangue (1981) directed by Joe D'Amato (Eastman co-starred in this film as the monster)
  • Caligula: The Untold Story (1982) directed by Joe D'Amato
  • Endgame (1983) directed by Joe D'Amato (Eastman co-starred in this film as well)
  • Stage Fright (1987 film) (1987) a.k.a. Deliria, directed by Michele Soavi (Eastman has an uncredited role in this film, playing the masked killer)
  • Metamorphosis/Regenerator (1990) a.k.a. DNA Formula Lethal (Eastman cameo in this film as well)
  • The Son of Sandokan (1998) Made-for-TV movie

References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 Roberto Poppi. I registi: dal 1930 ai giorni nostri. Gremese Editore, 2002. ISBN 8884401712.
  2. ↑ Curti 2013, p. 24.
  3. ↑ "Fellini Satyricon (1969)" (in French). Bifi.fr. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  4. ↑ Erickson, Hal. "Ben e Charlie on AllMovie". Archived from the original on 25 July 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  5. ↑ "Ruf der Wildnis". Filmportal.de. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  6. ↑ Curti 2013, p. 126.
  7. ↑ "Scalawag". American Film Institute. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  8. ↑ Curti 2013, p. 161.
  9. ↑ Pahlow, Colin (1977). "Keoma". Monthly Film Bulletin. London. 44 (516): 235. ISSN 0027-0407.
  10. ↑ Green 2009, p. 124.
  11. ↑ Curti 2013, p. 208.
  12. ↑ Shipka 2011, p. 133.
  13. ↑ Ray, Forest. "Antropophagus". Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
  14. ↑ "Antropophagus". AllMovie. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
  15. ↑ Beldin, Fred. "Porno Holocaust". Archived from the original on 27 July 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
  16. ↑ "Porno Holocaust". AllMovie. Archived from the original on 28 August 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  17. ↑ Kinnard & Crnkovich 2017, p. 203.
  18. ↑ Kinnard & Crnkovich 2017, p. 204.
  19. ↑ Mannikka, Eleanor. "The New Barbarians". Archived from the original on 17 November 2013. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  20. ↑ Taylor, Paul (1983). "New Barbarians, The "(I nuovi barbari)"". Monthly Film Bulletin. British Film Institute. 50 (588): 219–220.
  21. ↑ "Blastfighter on AllMovie". Archived from the original on 5 July 2016.
  22. ↑ Binion, Cavett. "Blastfighter on AllMovie". Archived from the original on 2 August 2012.
  23. ↑ Kinnard & Crnkovich 2017, p. 199.
  24. ↑ "Prinzessin Amina - Das Geheimnis einer Liebe". Filmportal.de. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  25. ↑ Curti 2013, p. 115.
  26. ↑ Paul 2005, p. 199.
  27. ↑ "Texas 2000 (1984)" (in Italian). Archivo del Cinema Italiano. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  28. ↑ Paul 2005, p. 296.
  29. ↑ "Emanuelle e Françoise, le sorelline (1975)". Archivo del cinema Italiano. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  30. ↑ Badder, David (1977). "Emanuelle and Francoise "(Emanuelle e Françoise le sorelline)"". Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol. 44 no. 516. British Film Institute. p. 232.
  31. ↑ "Il Cobra". British Film Institute. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  32. ↑ "Django spara per primo (1966)" (in Italian). Archivio del cinema italiano.it. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  33. ↑ Paul 2005, p. 202.
  34. ↑ Paul 2005, p. 297.
  35. ↑ "Due once di piombo (1966)" (in Italian). Archivio del cinema italiano.it. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  36. ↑ "Bill il taciturno (1967)" (in Italian). Archivio del cinema italiano.it. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  37. ↑ "Colpo maestro al servizio di Sua Maestà Britannica" (in Italian). Archivio del cinema italiano.it. Retrieved 28 August 2017.

Sources

  • Curti, Roberto (2013). Italian Crime Filmography, 1968-1980. McFarland. ISBN 0786469765.
  • Curti, Roberto (2016). Diabolika: Supercriminals, Superheroes and the Comic Book Universe in Italian Cinema. Midnight Marquee Press. ISBN 978-1-936168-60-6.
  • Green, Paul (2009). Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns: Supernatural and Science Fiction Elements in Novels, Pulps, Comics, Films, Television and Games. McFarland. ISBN 0786458003.
  • Kinnard, Roy; Crnkovich, Tony (2017). Italian Sword and Sandal Films, 1908-1990. McFarland. ISBN 1476662916.
  • Paul, Louis (2005). Italian Horror Film Directors. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-8749-3.
  • Shipka, Danny (2011). Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France, 1960–1980. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-4888-3.


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