Samuel Fuller

He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. He began, from a very young age, in the field of journalism, becoming a crime reporter at age 17. He wrote pulp novels and screenplays from the mid-30s onwards. During World War Two, Fuller joined the US 1st Infantry Division and fought in Africa and Italy. His war-time experiences as a soldier were used as material in a war movie The Big Red One (the title refers to the shoulder patch of the 1st Infantry Division), released in 1980, probably Fuller's finest work as a film director (the movie has been reconstructed with forty minutes of added footage and re-released in 2004). Fuller was awarded the Bronze Star, the Silver Star, and the Purple Heart in action with THE BIG RED ONE.

Fuller's journalistic background and his early beginnings as a pulp-fiction writer have informed his film work, particularly Park Row (1952), Shock Corridor (1963) and The Naked Kiss (1965). Fuller's style has been described as "primitive", a quality that has served him well in a series of war and adventure films The Steel Helmet (1950), Fixed Bayonets (1951), Hell and High Water (1954), China Gate (1957), Merrill's Marauders (1962). Fuller's range was somewhat limited. As an ex-soldier, he naturally excelled in the war film, but he has contributed outstandingly to the film noir genre (Pickup on South Street), and the Western (Run of the Arrow and Forty Guns). All these films benefited from his sense of economy in story-telling, a legacy of his pulp-fiction writing (Fuller wrote all of his own scripts). Outside of these genres, Fuller's work included less than acclaimed movies such as Shark, Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street, The Street of No Return. He has also acted in many films.

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