Fred Olen Ray

Fred Olen Ray (born September 10, 1954) is an American film producer, director and screenwriter of more than 200 low quality feature films in many genres, including horror, science fiction, action/adventure, erotic thrillers, crime dramas, and holiday films.

Ray is the head of Retromedia, which releases DVDs of both his own productions and archival films. He has also worked for other well-known independent studios and on a few occasions for major Hollywood studios. He has been cited as an inspiration for many independent filmmakers. He loaned a 16mm camera to Quentin Tarantino so he could make My Best Friend's Birthday.

Aside from his work in the film industry, Ray was also a professional wrestler. His wrestling name was Fabulous Freddie Valentine.

Early life Ray was born September 10, 1954, in Wellston, Ohio, to a family originally from West Virginia. As a teenager, he regularly read Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. Being a fan of horror and science fiction films such as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and the AIP movies of the 1950s and 1960s, Ray started making his own movies at the age of fourteen. Ray then began directing independent films during his free time using station equipment, starting with The Brain Leeches (1978), produced on a budget of $298. Ray also co-wrote the screenplay with political essayist Brad Linaweaver, and the two later collaborated on additional films.

1980s Ray's next film was shot on a budget of $15,000. Lessons learned from The Brain Leeches allowed Ray to keep production cost to a minimum, while using the bulk of the budget to attract a recognized Hollywood name to the project. Alien Dead was shot featuring an elderly Buster Crabbe, cinema action hero of the 1930s and 1940s, and star of three Flash Gordon serials from 1936 to 1940. With the success of that film, Ray decided to move to Hollywood to be close to the film industry. He was interested in working in make-up and special effects, "probably from all of those years of reading Famous Monsters magazine", he later said. He found out "it soon became apparent that you would always be between jobs and I was looking for something that would actually earn me a living. I think I became a director because that was the fastest way to get a film made on the independent side of things."

Ray succeeded in raising money for a low-budget horror film, Scalps (1983), which featured cameos from Carroll Borland and Forrest J. Ackerman. The Tomb (1986) stars Cameron Mitchell and John Carradine. Ray switched to action films with Armed Response (1986), which stars David Carradine and Lee Van Cleef. Ray had affection for this movie because "it had a great cast and was one of the first times I had more than two nickels to rub together."

Ray co-directed Scream Queen Hot Tub Party (1991) with Jim Wynorski, starring Kelli Maroney, shot in one day. Ray moved into erotic thrillers with Inner Sanctum (1991) starring Tanya Roberts. It was a hit and Ray would make others in that genre, including Inner Sanctum 2, Mind Twister (1994) and Possessed by the Night (1994).

Evil Toons (1992) is a comedy-horror, which was followed by another effort co-directed with Wynorski, Dinosaur Island (1994). Witch Academy (1994) was the last of his "scream queen" movies.

He established a DVD company called Retromedia. Ray made a film called Bikini Airways "on a lark and it did really well", said Ray. This led to a series of Bikini films.

In 2007, he reflected on his career: Money is always a barrier. The more they give you, the more they expect, so you're always caught short, regardless. I don't think anything I've done was ever budgeted properly for what was expected of me, but that's just the nature of the business, I guess. There certainly are films I did because there was a paycheck attached. It's a working man's world and it doesn't pay to get too idealistic about things like directing low-budget movies if you have a family to think about. I usually try to find something that interests me in each and every project. It's not really possible to phone it in. Making a film with no money or schedule is ten times harder than it is to make a big-budget show where you're surrounded by a gang of super-talented people. One reviewer described American Bandits as perhaps "the most boring Jesse James film ever made".

In 2019, he produced and released Boggy Creek: The Series, with director Henrique Couto at the helm.

Books Grind Show - Weirdness as Entertainment (1993) The New Poverty Row: Independent Filmmakers as Distributors (2011), Hell-Bent for Hollywood: A Director's Journey (2024),

Filmography

Film

Television

TV Movies

TV Series