Biography

Friends often teased wife Carolyn Brandt that perhaps she shouldn't get involved with Steckler because he was always killing her off in his movies. The two were married in the mid-'60s but divorced in the early '70s. They continued to work on film projects together, however, and Steckler continued to kill her off in nearly every one of them.

Later directed a handful of 1970s and early 1980s softcore and hardcore adult films. He was also known by the pseudonyms Sven Christian, Sven Hellstrom, Harry Nixon, Michael J. Rogers, Michel J. Rogers, Wolfgang Schmidt, Cindy Lou Steckler, R.D. Steckler, Ray Steckler, and Cindy Lou Sutters --the last being his "porn name".

At 15, upon receiving an 8mm home movie camera from his stepfather, he shot an amateur pirate film with friends. He came to Hollywood in the late 1950s where he initially found work as a prop man, assistant director and director of photography. He first directed the 1959-made short film Goof on the Loose (1964).

Grade "Z" filmmaker and actor who achieved cult infamy with his low-budget 1960s features. His first solo film, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964), co-starred his one-time wife Carolyn Brandt and was budgeted at $38,000. He took the film on the road himself and made it a success under a number of titles, including "Diabolical Dr. Voodoo" and "The Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary". The film received more notoriety again in 1997, when it was featured on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988).

Was working on the film "Incredibly Strange Creatures: One More Time", a follow-up to his earlier cult film The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964) at the time of his death.