Nationality British Name Jimmy Sangster | Years active 1955-2000 Occupation Screenwriter Children Mark James Sangster | |
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Full Name James Henry Kinmel Sangster Books Touchfeather, Touchfeather, Too Movies Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein, Lust for a Vampire, The Horror of Frankenstein, The Brides of Dracula Similar People Terence Fisher, Ralph Bates, Anthony Hinds, Michael Carreras, Seth Holt | ||
James Henry Kinmel Sangster (2 December 1927 – 19 August 2011) was a British screenwriter and director, known for his work for horror film producers Hammer Film Productions, including scripts for The Curse of Frankenstein (the first British horror film to be shot in colour) and Dracula (US: Horror of Dracula).
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Career
Sangster originally worked as a production assistant at Hammer Studios, as well as assistant director, second unit director and production manager. After Hammer Films Productions' success with The Quatermass Xperiment, Sangster was approached to write The Curse of Frankenstein, to which he said, "I'm not a writer. I'm a production manager." According to Sangster, Hammer Films' response was, "Well, you come up with a couple of ideas and if we like it, we'll pay you. If we don't like it, we won't pay you. You're being paid as a production manager, so you can't complain." He later turned to direction with The Horror of Frankenstein and Lust for a Vampire (both 1970) for the studio, but with far less success. His third (and last) film as director was 1972's Fear in the Night, which resurrected the psychological woman-in-peril thriller Sangster had begun with his script for Taste of Fear in 1961. All three of these films featured actor Ralph Bates, one of Hammer's best-known actors of the latter period of the company.
Sangster scripted and produced two films for Bette Davis, The Nanny (1965) and The Anniversary (1968).
Other scriptwriting credits included The Siege of Sidney Street (1960) which starred Donald Sinden and in which Sangster appeared as Winston Churchill.
He died on 19 August 2011. He is survived by his third wife, the actress Mary Peach and by a son from an earlier marriage, Mark James Sangster and two grandchildren, Claire and Ian Sangster.