Harry Hurwitz

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BIRTHDAY

N/A

DIED

September 21, 1995

RECENT CREDITS

Nocturna (FILM) Jan. 1, 2004

Fleshtone (FILM) Jan. 1, 1994

The Miracle (FILM) Jan. 1, 1990

Under the Rainbow (FILM) Jul. 31, 1981

Richard (FILM) Jan. 1, 1972

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BIOGRAPHY

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Independent filmmaker/artist Harry Hurwitz is perhaps most famous for his innovative 1971 cult film The Projectionist, the story of a lonesome projectionist whose imaginary adventures as a super hero are superimposed over old film clips. The highly-acclaimed movie featured the film-debut of comic Rodney Dangerfield. In the late '70s, Hurwitz, billing himself as "Harry Tampa" gained a further underground following with three films: Fairy Tales, Auditions (both 1978) and Nocturna (1979). The bulk of Hurwitz's filmography is comprised of highly creative, often funny low-budget fare ranging from mockumentaries to musicals to comedies to thrillers. Before becoming a director, the New York City-born and raised Hurwitz was a professor of film and drawing at the NYU, Cooper Union and the Parsons School of Design. Hurwitz had a lifelong love and fascination with silent comedian Charlie Chaplin and it was therefore fitting that his first film Chaplinesque: My Life and Hard Times (1964) was a fascinating documentary-account of the genesis of Chaplin's Tramp. The film was released under the title The Eternal Tramp. Other notable Hurwitz efforts include Richard (1972), a scathing but funny look at the pre-Watergate life and career of President Richard M. Nixon and That's Adequate (1990) a psuedo-documentary account of a fictional film studio that first showed at the 1988 Sundance Festival. The off-beat thriller Fleshtone (1994) was Hurwitz's last completed film. At the time of his death from heart failure on September 21, 1995, Hurwitz was in production with an all-star film comprised of the director's favorite themes, Remake.

~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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