Don Edmonds

Don Edmonds was born on September 1, 1937, in Kansas City, MO. He came to Hollywood in the mid to late 1950s. He studied acting with noted acting coach Estelle Harmon and began performing in various California stage productions. His initial forays into television acting included such live TV shows as Playhouse 90 (1956), Studio One (1948) and The Loretta Young Show (1953). He was usually cast as a goofy sidekick in such "beach party"-type movies as Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961), Beach Ball (1965) and Wild Wild Winter (1966). He made guest appearances on such TV shows as Hunter (1984), Green Acres (1965), Combat! (1962), Petticoat Junction (1963), The Munsters (1964), Gidget (1965) and Father Knows Best (1954). Edmonds made his directorial debut with the soft-core features Wild Honey (1972) and Tender Loving Care (1973). He achieved his greatest enduring cult exploitation cinema popularity by directing the infamous Nazisploitation classic Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975) and its marvelously outrageous sequel Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976). After "Ilsa" Edmonds went on to direct the superbly gritty urban action winner Bare Knuckles (1977), the cruddy slasher horror entry Terror on Tour (1980), the action comedy Tomcat Angels (1991) and the pilot of the TV series Silk Stalkings (1991). As the vice president of production at Producers Sales Organization, Don was responsible for getting movies like Short Circuit (1986), 8 Million Ways to Die (1986) and The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) greenlit and subsequently made. He had also been involved as either a producer, co-producer or executive producer on a sizable number of pictures, including Larceny (2004), Fast Money (1996), True Romance (1993) (he was part of the production team which helped Quentin Tarantino get his early professional filmmaking career off and running), Skeeter (1993) and The Night Stalker (1986). In later years, Don attended screenings of his 1970s drive-in flicks and appeared as a guest at film conventions held all over the country. He died at age 71 of liver cancer on May 30, 2009.