Fred Graver

Fred Graver is an American writer. He wrote a Choose Your Own Adventure book, number 35, Journey to Stonehenge.

Fred began performing in 1966 in a small midwestern town called Palos Park, Illinois.

Fred began his professional career in the early 1980s at a small trade book publisher called M. Evans. He forgot to enter one of his author's novels for a Mystery Writers of America "best first novel." In 1982 he authored an early self-help personal finance book, Get Out of Debt Now. Then he moved to the National Lampoon. He was co-Editor in Chief of the Lampoon (with Sean Kelly) under the pseudonym L. Dennis Plunkett. He left the Lampoon in 1984 to join Late Night with David Letterman, where he worked as a writer until 1990. While at Letterman, he and friend Kevin Curran wrote several unproduced screenplays -- mostly for the fun of being flown out to L.A., living in great hotels, and taking meetings.

In 1990, Graver went to work for Norman Lear's production company, leaving a year later to join the staff of In Living Color, where he worked until 1992, when he joined the staff of Cheers as a writer and, eventually, co-producer.

While working in what would eventually be called "old media," Graver took up computers as a hobby. His personal email address dates back to 1986, when it was his login for The Well, an online community begun by Whole Earth Catalog people.

In 1994, the Northridge earthquake intensely frightened Graver. For a brief moment, he believed that the quake had been sent to him as a message / warning / punishment -- he immediately regretted both living in Los Angeles and having signed up for an America Online account. He moved back to New York, and gave the account to his wife.^{[citation needed]}

He returned to New York and, with his good friend Charlie Rubin, wrote an article for New York Magazine on the possibility of a major earthquake in New York City.

In the mid-90s, Graver worked with a group of people at ABC / Disney and Walt Disney Imagineering to explore "Telefusion" -- what would happen when the computer and the television collided. In the late 90s, he joined MTVi, the interactive group at MTV Networks, where he ran VH1.Com, SonicNet and Country.Com.

In 2006, he was Executive Producer and Creator of Best Week Ever on VH1, and runs the Bestweekever.tv [1] website. On July 1st, 2010 Fred was named as SVP of Programming for the Travel Channel.

References[link]

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Gary Graver (July 20, 1938 - November 16, 2006) was an American film director and cinematographer. He was a prolific film-maker but is perhaps best known as Orson Welles' final cinematographer. Under the pseudonym of Robert McCallum he also directed adult films.

Graver was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. In high school, he produced and starred in his own radio show, and had built a movie theatre in his parents' basement where he showed his own films.

At age 20, he moved to Hollywood to become an actor, but drifted into production when work as an actor was scarce. He was drafted into the U.S. military and was assigned to the Navy Combat Camera Group. Upon returning to civilian life, Graver made documentaries for a year before starting to work on larger budget features.

In 1970, Graver made an unannounced call on Orson Welles, saying he wanted to work with the director. Welles told Graver that only one other person had ever called him to say they wanted to work with him - and that was Gregg Toland who worked with Welles on Citizen Kane.

Soon after, Welles and Graver started work on the film The Other Side of the Wind, in addition to other projects Welles had in the works including F For Fake and Filming Othello.

Graver's work for Welles was unpaid, and during the shooting of one scene in The Other Side of the Wind, Welles used as a prop his 1941 Oscar that he won as the co-writer of Citizen Kane. When shooting was finished, he handed the statuette to Graver saying, "Here, keep this." Graver understood this to be a gift in lieu of payment for his work. Graver held onto the award for several years until he ran into financial trouble in the 1990s, and in 1994 he sold it for $50,000. The purchaser, a company called Bay Holdings, then attempted to sell it at auction through Sotheby's in London. When Welles' daughter, Beatrice Welles learned of the intended sale, she successfully sued both Graver and the holding company to stop the sale. She eventually took possession of the statuette before then selling it on herself.^[1]

Besides his work with Welles, Graver also worked for other notable Hollywood directors including Roger Corman, Fred Olen Ray and Ron Howard. The bulk of his output was B-movies since, as he put it, "I knew how to make a movie without much money."^[2]

Graver's work in the adult film industry resulted in more than 135 films including Unthinkable, which won the AVN Award for Best All-Sex Video in 1985. Graver was later inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame for his work.^[3]

Gary Graver died on November 16, 2006 at his home in Rancho Mirage, California after a lengthy battle with cancer. His widow, the former actress Jillian Kesner died of leukemia in December 2007.^[4][5] Gary Graver's memoir, Making Movies with Orson Welles, co-written by Andrew J. Rausch, was released by Scarecrow Press in 2008.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official homepage
• Gary Graver at the Internet Movie Database
• Los Angeles Times obituary
• Gary Graver Profile
• Gary Graver at AllRovi
• Gary Graver at Wellesnet
• Unhappy with the way he felt producers sometimes butchered his work, in 2004 Graver made a documentary outlining his grievances. The entire documentary was posted on YouTube in several parts: A Gary Graver Movie.

Fred Olen Ray (born September 10, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and cinematographer.

Biography[link]

He is the producer, director, and screenwriter of low to medium-budget feature films in many genres, including horror, science fiction, action/adventure, softcore sex films and crime dramas. He has also produced a few feature films for a family audience.

In his craft he has used many pseudonyms. They include: Bill Carson, S. Carver, Roger Collins, Peter Daniels, Nicholas Medina, Nick Medina, Sam Newfield, Ed Raymond, Sherman Scott, Peter Stewart, and Freddie Valentine.

Aside from the film industry Fred Olen Ray is also a professional wrestler. His wrestling name is Fabulous Freddie Valentine. He is currently married to Kimberly A. Ray who helps produce many of his films.

Film career[link]

Ray was born in Ohio, but grew up in Florida. He claims to have a large family tree and be distantly related to Queen Elizabeth. He began directing and producing films in 1978. Ray directed several films in Florida, including Alien Dead with film legend Buster Crabbe, then moved to Southern California to be close to the film industry.

Many of his early productions appeared at drive-in theaters and inner-city grindhouses, when those outlets for low budget films were still significant. Some of Ray's productions have received theatrical releases. Most of his current output, however, is released directly to DVD or appears on cable television channels such as Showtime, Cinemax, and HBO. Ray has directed over 100 films and is still going strong.

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.

Ray has written The New Poverty Row: Independent Filmmakers as Distributors in 1991.^[1]

Filmography[link]

• Twilight Vamps^[2]
• Bikini Frankenstein (2009)^[3]
• The Lair (2007) (TV)
• The Legend of William Tell (2006)
• Glass Trap (2005)
• Tomb of the Werewolf (2004) (V)
• Bikini a Go Go (2004) (V) (as Nicholas Medina)
  • aka Curse of the Erotic Tiki (USA: DVD box title)
• The Bikini Escort Company (2004) (as Nicholas Medina)
  • aka The Erotic Escort Company (USA: DVD title)
• Genie in a String Bikini (2004) (as Nicholas Medina)
• Haunting Desires (2004) (TV) (as Nicholas Medina)
• Teenage Cavegirl (2004) (as Nicholas Medina)
• Bikini Airways (2003) (as Nicholas Medina)
• Final Examination (2003)
• Southern Discomfort: Wrestling on the Indie Circuit (2002)
• Venomous (2002) (as Ed Raymond)
• 13 Erotic Ghosts (2002) (as Nicholas Medina)
• Emmanuelle 2000 (2001)
• Air Rage (2001)
• Mach 2 (2001)
• ACW Wrestling's Wildest Matches! (2001) (as Sherman Scott)
• Emmanuelle 2001: Emmanuelle's Sensual Pleasures (2001) (as Nicholas Medina)
• Kept (2001)
• Stranded (2001/II)
• Submerged (2000)
• Sideshow (2000)
• Critical Mass (2000) (as Ed Raymond)
• Inviati speciali (2000)
• Invisible Mom II (1999)
• Fugitive Mind (1999)
• The Prophet (1999/I)
• The Kid with X-ray Eyes (1999) (as Sherman Scott)
• Counter Measures (1999)
  • a.k.a. Crash Dive 2 (USA)
• Active Stealth (1999)
• Scandal: On the Other Side (1999) (as Nick Medina)
• Mom, Can I Keep Her? (1998)
• Inferno (1998/II)
  • a.k.a. Operation Cobra
• Illicit Dreams 2 (1998) (as Roger Collins)
• Billy Frankenstein (1998)
• Dear Santa (1998) (as Peter Stewart)
• Mom's Outta Sight (1998) (as Peter Stewart)
• The Shooter (1997) (as Ed Raymond)
  • a.k.a. Desert Shooter (USA)
• Invisible Mom (1997)
• Bikini Hoe-Down (1997) (as Roger Collins)
• Hybrid (1997)
• Invisible Dad (1997)
• Little Miss Magic (1997)
• Masseuse 2 (1997) (as Peter Daniels)
• Maximum Revenge (1997)
  • a.k.a. Maximum Security
• Night Shade (1997) (as Nicholas Medina)
• Rapid Assault (1997) (as Sherman Scott)
• Friend of the Family II (1996) (as Nicholas Medina)
• Fugitive Rage (1996)
  • a.k.a. Caged Fear (UK)
• Over the Wire (1996) (as Nicholas Medina)
• Masseuse (1996) (as Peter Daniels)
  • a.k.a. American Masseuse (UK: video title)
• Droid Gunner (1995)
  • a.k.a. Phoenix 2 (UK)
• Bikini Drive-In (1995)
• Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfolds (1995)
• Star Hunter (1995) (as Sam Newfield)
• Inner Sanctum II (1994)
• Possessed by the Night (1994)
• Dinosaur Island (1994)
• Mind Twister (1994)
• Dinosaur Girls (1993)
• Witch Academy (1993)
  • a.k.a. Little Devils
• Evil Toons (1992)
• Haunting Fear (1991)
• Spirits (1991)
• Inner Sanctum (1991)
• Bad Girls from Mars (1991)
• Scream Queen Hot Tub Party (1991)
• Wizards of the Demon Sword (1991)
• Mob Boss (1990)
• Demon Cop (1990)
• Warlords (1989)
• Terminal Force (1989)
• Alienator (1989)
• Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988)
• Prison Ship (1988)
• Beverly Hills Vamp (1988)
• Commando Squad (1987)
• Cyclone (1987)
• Deep Space (1987)
• Evil Spawn (1987)
• Armed Response (1986)
  • a.k.a. Jade Jungle
• The Tomb (1986)
• The Phantom Empire (1986)
• Biohazard (1985)
• Scalps (1983)
• Alien Dead (1980)
• The Brain Leeches (1977)
• Demented Death Farm Massacre (1971) (new footage)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Fred Olen Ray at the Internet Movie Database