Anthony M. Lanza(1936-2010)

Anthony M. Lanza was born in 1936 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He made his own 16mm movies as a kid and studied film at the University of Southern California. After graduating from USC, Anthony secured his first motion picture gig as both co-editor and co-producer of Timothy Carey's sublimely screwy one-of-a-kind exploitation oddity The World's Greatest Sinner (1962). Lanza went on to edit such offbeat low-budget movies as Wild Guitar (1962), Le Sadique (1963), What's Up Front! (1964), The Nasty Rabbit (1964), Deadwood '76 (1965), Dinah East (1970) and Doomsday Voyage (1972). He was an assistant director on both The Skydivers (1963) and Bigfoot (1970). Moreover, he handled post-production supervisor duties on such straight-to-video items as Codename: Silencer (1995) and Dangerous (1995). Lanza has directed three theatrical features: the gritty biker romp La guerre des anges (1967) ('Dennis Hopper (I)''s first-ever biker flick), the dire talk show spoof "The Irv Carlson Show" and the supremely schlocky sci-fi/horror camp hoot Amok, l'homme à deux têtes (1971). In addition, he directed another three pictures that either weren't finished or failed to receive theatrical releases: "Desert Gems," "Freedom Riders" and "Squeeze Play."

Lanza died on October 16, 2010 at the Rosewood Nursing Home in Lake Charles, Louisiana.