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Thread: Ray Dennis Steckler

  1. #1
    jz63 Guest

    Ray Dennis Steckler

    I hate to have to post this one but Ray Dennis Steckler died in Las Vegas on Jan 7th. Apparently he just wrapped filming on a sequel to The Incredibley Strange Creatures Who Decided To Stop Living And Become Mixed Up Zombies. RIP

  2. #2
    Guest Guest
    Who is he?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Bone Orchard, Mass.
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    Steckler is very much like Ed Wood, but Steckler lived to old age. Like Wood, he made fascinatingly bad pictures, and later wound up doing porn, mainly just so he could do SOME film work.
    "Everybody is born, and everybody dies. Being born wasn't so bad , was it?"
    Peter the Hermit

  4. #4
    Guest Guest
    Thanks for the info, I love bad movies, will have to check his work out.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
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    Bone Orchard, Mass.
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    1,301
    Vladpyre,

    Do you know the date of that Lynn Frederick picture and where I can find a larger file of it? Those are some of the best legs I have ever seen.
    "Everybody is born, and everybody dies. Being born wasn't so bad , was it?"
    Peter the Hermit

  6. #6
    jz63 Guest
    I agree.. those are some fantastic gams!!!!

  7. #7
    jz63 Guest
    here's some more info on RDS from the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 obit..

    LAS VEGAS–According to his Web site, actor, director, producer Ray Dennis Steckler died here. Jan. 7, a couple of weeks short of his 71st birthday. He was the producer, director and one of the stars of the movie in episode 812 - THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES. MSTies may also remember his bit part as “guy thrown into pool” in the movie in episode 506 - EEGAH!
    Born in Reading, Penn., Steckler learned about film photography during a hitch in the Army, and relocated to Los Angeles after he left the service. He worked on the crew of several TV shows (Alfred Hitchcock himself once reportedly fired him from the set of “Alftred Hitchcock Presents”), then got his first cinematography experience on Timothy Carey’s “The World’s Greatest Sinner.” He also served as cinematographer in “Secret File: Hollywood,” Frenzy,” “Goof on the Loose,” “Scream of the Butterfly,” “The Velvet Trap” and “The Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio.” He wrote the screenplay for and acted in 1961’s “Drivers in Hell” (aka “Wild Ones on Wheels”).
    Steckler also worked with Arch Hall Sr., directing the movie “Wild Guitar.” Steckler also appeared in the movie, using the stage name Cash Flagg. He was also billed as Cash Flagg in 1963’s TISCTSLABMUZ. Cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and future Oscar winner Vilmos Zsigmond both worked on that film, in one of their first gigs in the business. It also featured Steckler’s wife, Carolyn Brandt. Later came the serial killer saga “The Thrill Killers” “Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters” and the inexplicable “Rat Pfink a Boo-Boo.” (It was supposed to be titled “Rat Pfink AND Boo-Boo” but according to legend someone at the lab “screwed up”). Steckler also did some of the cinematography for “Eegah!”
    Some of his films were shown in “Hallucinogenic Hypno-vision,” which essentially meant the ushers (and sometimes Steckler himself) would run up and down the theater aisles wearing monster masks. He also directed the video for Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.”
    Here’s a Stecker anecdote that only MSTies will appreciate: In 1969, just after he had wrapped production on “Super Cool,” Steckler was walking to his car when he encountered Coleman Francis, drunk and lying in the gutter. Steckler felt so bad about Francis’ condition that, even though he had finished work on the movie, he decided on the spot to add some scenes just to give Francis some work and some badly needed cash. Steckler gave Francis some money and told him to report to the studio the next next day. Steckler and his crew were astonished when Francis showed up for work bright-eyed, clean shaven and nicely attired (Francis had used the advance pay to buy a decent second-hand suit and make a trip to the barber), which was a bit of a problem, since Steckler had wanted him to play the part of a disheveled bum.
    In the ’70s, Steckler moved to Las Vegas and continued crank out low-budget work, including 1971’s “Blood Shack” (aka “The Chooper”). Steckler began using pseudonyms for his direction (including Wolfgang Schmidt, Sven Christian, Sven Hellstrom, Harry Nixon, Michael J. Rogers, Michel J. Rogers, Cindy Lou Steckler–Steckler denies that he ever used the name Cindy Lou Sutters), especially when he began to dabble in porn. Titles from that era include “The Mad Love Life of a Horny Vampire” and “Sexorcist Devil.” He later opened a video store in Las Vegas, called Mascot Video, selling it in 1995.
    He sold videos of his works via the Web, including six volumes of footage of young actresses and dancers in nude auditions. He was very accessible and always cordial with fans, though, like many moviemakers, he was not a big fan of MST3K and reportedly he did not find the MSTing of TISCTSLABMUZ amusing.
    He had two daughters with Brandt. In 1985 he married his second wife, Katherine, and they had two daughters. He also had two grandchildren.

  8. #8
    hoxharding Guest

    Ray Dennis Steckley(R.I.P) =(

    Ray Dennis Steckler (January 25, 1938 â?? January 7, 2009),[1] [2] widely known by the pseudonym Cash Flagg, was an American film director, born in Reading, Pennsylvania.
    Steckler served briefly during the late 1950s in the Army as a photographer. When he left the service, he spent a year at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens. In 1962 Steckler moved to Los Angeles, to become assistant cameraman on the Timothy Carey film, The World's Greatest Sinner. When the initial director of photography was fired, Steckler became the DP by proxy.
    From this point, he then began working with cinematography in the Los Angeles area, acquiring a union card and establishing himself at major studios, including Universal Studios. When he was reportedly fired for almost knocking an A-frame onto Alfred Hitchcock, Steckler turned to the then fledgling B-movie circuit. Joining forces with Arch Hall Sr.'s Fairway Pictures, Steckler started as cinematographer and sometimes actor in the vehicles for Hall's son, Arch Hall Jr.. Steckler made his directorial debut in the Hall vehicle Wild Guitar and co-starred under his on-screen name Cash Flagg.
    In 1963 he co-produced his first solo film, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?, co-starring his then wife, Carolyn Brandt. Reportedly filmed for a budget of $38,000, the film was photographed by then newcomers László Kovács and Vilmos Zsigmond; both men acknowledged the film as their first big break. Initially distributed on the lower half of a double-bill by Fairway, Steckler took Creatures on the road himself and made it a success under a number of titles, including Diabolical Dr. Voodoo and The Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary. Falling into semi-obscurity past its eccentric title, the film gained notoriety once again in 1997, when it was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
    Steckler's next film was his answer to Psycho, entitled The Thrill Killers, released in 1964. The film marked the first effort between Steckler and Ron Haydock, who would be Steckler's creative partner up until the latter's death in the 1970s.
    Steckler continued to produce a number of low-budget but fanciful films which soon attained cult status, including Rat Pfink a Boo Boo (a spoof of Batman) and Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters (an homage to the East Side Kids films). By the late 1960s, he also directed the video for Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit."
    Steckler's low-budget often meant working for little to nothing, but his comradeship was often reflected in his productions. In his 1969 film Body Fever, Steckler created a bit part for then destitute fellow director Coleman Francis, who, by coincidence, also achieved belated fame via Mystery Science Theater 3000. Francis passed away not long after the making of the film.
    With the decline of drive-in horror films of the nature Steckler was producing in the 1960s, and following his divorce from Brandt, Steckler dabbled with producing porn films during the 1970s and 1980s.
    In the late 1980s Steckler opened Mascot Video in Las Vegas and sold it in 1995 to local businessman Dan Wayman. Up until his death in 2009, Steckler continued to sell videos of his works via the web, including six volumes of young actresses and dancers in nude auditions for Steckler's camera. Steckler says these auditions were shot in 1991 for The Hollywood Strangler in Las Vegas (a.k.a. Las Vegas Serial Killer), but that film was finished by 1987.
    In addition to Cash Flagg, Steckler was also known by the pseudonyms Sven Christian, Sven Hellstrom, Harry Nixon, Michael J. Rogers, Michel J. Rogers, Wolfgang Schmidt, Cindy Lou Steckler, R.D. Steckler, Ray Steckler, and Cindy Lou Sutters -- the last being his "porn name."
    In 2008, Steckler announced production of his new film One More Time, a sequel to The Incredibly Strange Creatures, and launched two MySpace pages and a website for casting actresses for his upcoming films.
    Steckler completed post-production of Incredibly Strange Creatures: One More Time shortly before his death. It was filmed on location on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and Las Vegas on a budget of $3,800 using two Digital 8 cameras. The film is a follow-up to the 45 year old film and will be released straight to DVD in mid June 2009.
    Steckler died of cardiac arrest on January 7, 2009, aged 70, shortly after returning to Las Vegas, Nevada. He was buried at the Palm Mortuary and Cemetery, Green Valley in Las Vegas.

  9. #9
    hoxharding Guest
    I can vouch that Ray was great with his fans. I ordered two autographed films of his.( The Lemon Grove Kids and Rat Phink A Boo Boo)
    He sent me not only the tapes,but interviews he had given and autographed that also. He was a very gracious man.

  10. #10
    hoxharding Guest
    [edit] Filmography (as director)


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