Sidney Hayers

Scotsman Sidney Hayers was a film editor, producer, and director who is best known for his horror films. His film career began in the postwar era in England as a film editor. Among the films he worked on were the Nevil Shute adaptation "A Town Like Alice" in 1956 and the 1958 depiction of the Titanic disaster, "A Night to Remember." A year later he directed his first film, the low-budget drama "Rebound" and in 1960 made his first foray into television when he directed an episode of "The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre." His "Circus of Horrors" came out in 1960 as well, and the cult film may be his best known. He followed it up with the horror film "Burn, Witch, Burn!" and later in the decade helmed the thriller "The Trap," which starred Rita Tushingham and Oliver Reed. Other exploitation titles like "Inn of the Frightened People" and "Deadly Strangers" followed, but by the mid-'60s he was mostly working in television. Series he worked on in England included the action show "The Avengers" and the medieval adventure "Arthur of the Britons" in the early '70s. He had a longer stint on the family show "The Famous Five" and in the '80s worked on American network shows such as "The Greatest American Hero" and the action drama "Knight Rider," and returned to his B-movie roots in 1990 with the sci-fi show "They Came from Outer Space."