Fred Olen Ray

Florida

Ray was born in Ohio, but grew up in Sarastosa, Florida. He claims to know his family tree extensively and to have identified his relation to Queen Elizabeth. He was a passionate film fan, regularly reading Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine and 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. He started making his own movies when he was fourteen.

He served in the navy. When he got out he went to work at a local television station. He worked on his first film in 1975, Shock Waves, with Peter Cushing and John Carradine.

He began making movies on the weekend using station equipment, starting with The Brain Leeches (1977) made for $298.

He made Alien Dead with film legend Buster Crabbe. He decided to move to Hollywood to be close to the film industry.

Hollywood

Ray 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) starred Cameron Mitchell and John Carradine.

Ray switched to action films with Armed Response (1986), which starred 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."

He then turned to science fiction: Deep Space (1987), Cyclone (1987). Beverly Hills Vamp (1988) was a horror comedy with Eddie Deezen.

Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988) was made in only a few days and turned out to be a big hit. Less popular was The Phantom Empire (1988).

After Alienator (1989) he was reunited with Deezen for Mob Boss (1990), another comedy. He entered sword and scorcery movies with Wizards of the Demon Sword (1991) and made the more popular Bad Girls from Mars (1991).

During this time he published a book he had written, The New Poverty Row: Independent Filmmakers as Distributors (1991).

Ray co-directed Scream Queen Hot Tub Party (1991) with Jim Wynorski, 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) was a comedy-horror then he co-directed another with Wynorski, Dinosaur Island (1994). Witch Academy (1994) was the last of his "scream queens" movies.

After Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold (1995), he made Fugitive Rage (1996), Friend of the Family II (1996), Inferno (1997), Hybrid (1997), The Shooter (1997).

Dear Santa (1998) was a family film and Billy Frankenstein (1998) a comedy.

In 2001 he made the film Critical Mass. He later said he was a "Critical Mass kind of guy. I like to shoot things and blow stuff up. I also like comedies. Don't like erotic thrillers."

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.

Pseudonyms

In his craft, Fred Olen Ray has used many pseudonyms, some used earlier by the B-movie director, Sam Newfield.

Personal life

Ray's first marriage was short-lived but resulted in two sons. He raised one son while his ex-wife raised the other.

He is currently married to Kimberly A. Ray, who helps produce many of his films.