Gordon Hessler

Prolific German-born director Gordon Hessler lived in England before moving to the United States as a teenager. He got his start in film working in documentaries until Universal Pictures hired him to work on the horror anthology series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour." Hessler worked diligently and earned a string of promotions that bumped him from story reader to associate producer to director and finally to full-fledged producer by 1964. While Hessler explored producing throughout the '60s, directing became his true passion. In 1965, Hessler debuted his first feature film, "The Woman Who Wouldn't Die," a macabre tale of resurrection based on a novelette the Hitchcock series had failed to adapt. Hessler built a name for himself in the horror genre, helming such films as the Vincent Price vehicle "The Oblong Box," which centered on an aristocrat whose maniacal disfigured brother runs amok, and the witches' coven tale "Cry of the Banshee." Hessler also directed the stop-motion classic "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" in 1974. Though best known for his B movies, Hessler was also a successful television director, having helmed such popular series as the sun-soaked cop drama "Hawaii Five-O," the superhero series "The New Adventures of Wonder Woman," and the Highway Patrol crime drama "CHiPs." After having served as director on 45 productions, Hessler walked away from directing in the '90s, though he has granted several onscreen interviews regarding his work since then.