- Born
- Died
- Nickname
- Bernard Travis
- Roger Watkins was born September 17, 1948, in Binghamton, NY. The son of Leland and Elizabeth Watkins, Roger first started making movies at the age of ten. He attended the liberal arts college the State University of New York in Oneonta and continued to make films whenever he could. Noted SUNY professor and author Paul M. Jensen appeared in many of Roger's college shorts, which include an adaptation of the classic EC Comics killer Santa Claus story "And All Through the House."
In 1972 Watkins began work on his first feature, Last House on Dead End Street (1973) , which was shot on 16mm film stock with talent gleaned from SUNY's film and theater departments. Widely considered one of the most grim, disturbing and nihilistic indie shockers to ever creep its sleazy way across the screen in the 1970s, it has since gone on to amass a substantial cult following. Roger went on to make a series of highly distinctive and stylized adult films under the pseudonym Richard Mahler, with the especially bleak and brooding Corruption (1983) rating as perhaps his most impressive hardcore picture. Moreover, Watkins also made the obscure horror thriller Shadows of the Mind (1980), which he subsequently disowned and attributed to the alias Bernard Travis. In addition, Roger directed several documentaries that include the harrowing "Heaven Knows", about life in a sanitarium. Watkins died at age 58 at his home in Apalachin, NY, on March 6, 2007.- IMDb mini biography by: woodyanders
- Was interviewed on The Howard Stern Show (1990) on November 22, 1994.
- It wasn't until October of 2005 that it was publicly discovered that Roger Watkins directed Shadows of the Mind (1980), under the pseudonym "Bernard Travis".
- Was the father of two daughters, Elizabeth and Jennifer.
- [on Last House on Dead End Street (1973)] With this movie I was trying to say, "Look at me. I'm 22 years old and I know how to make a movie. And I know how to make one unlike any other." I would find out later that to mainstream filmmaking this is a dangerous concept indeed.
- [on his decision to make porn movies under the pseudonym Richard Mahler] I applied my vision but for the money. But I took a lot of risks in doing so. I went into porn because I was broke, my wife was pregnant, and I was offered a deal I could not refuse. Oddly enough the particular people I dealt with in that peculiar industry were far more honest than the so-called "legit" scumbags.
- [on playing the lead character of Terry Hawkins and the making of Last House on Dead End Street (1973)] The budget on the film was $1500, including amphetamines, food, and rent. The key to low-budget filmmaking is exploiting to the hilt what you can get for free. I had the locations and my friends, all of whom were either undergraduates or professors. I say in all modesty that I was perfect for the part. In fact, it was a Czechoslovakian film producer that suggested it to me in the first place.
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