Samuel Fuller

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Birthday:

12 August 1912, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

Birth Name:

Samuel Michael Fuller

Height:

168 cm

At age 17, Samuel Fuller was the youngest reporter ever to be in charge of the events section of the New York Journal. After having participated in the European battle theater in World War II, he directed some minor action productions for which he mostly wrote the scripts himself and which he also produced (e.g. The Baron of Arizona (1950)). His masterpiece was Pickup on South Street (1953) for 20th Century Fox, but at the end of the 1950s, he regained his independence from the production company and filmed many other movies of note, including the controversial White Dog (1982). Show less «

Film is a battleground. Love, hate, violence, action, death . . . In a word, emotion.

Am I a cult director? Yeah, I love all that. I want to join the cult of the $100- to $200-million grossers and still make an artistic pictur...Show more »

Am I a cult director? Yeah, I love all that. I want to join the cult of the $100- to $200-million grossers and still make an artistic picture. Show less «

Ninety-five per cent of films are born of frustration, of self-despair, of ambition for survival, for money, for fattening bank accounts. Fi...Show more »

Ninety-five per cent of films are born of frustration, of self-despair, of ambition for survival, for money, for fattening bank accounts. Five per cent, maybe less, are made because a man has an idea, an idea which he must express. Show less «

[Vincent van Gogh] was a great inspiration for me, a guy for whom life was work and work was life. I wanted to be like him, except I didn't ...Show more »

[Vincent van Gogh] was a great inspiration for me, a guy for whom life was work and work was life. I wanted to be like him, except I didn't want to go nuts and cut off my ear. Show less «

I hate violence. That has never prevented me from using it in my films.

[Fuller, a WW II combat veteran, writing to director Lewis Milestone--himself a World War I combat veteran--expressing his displeasure at wh...Show more »

[Fuller, a WW II combat veteran, writing to director Lewis Milestone--himself a World War I combat veteran--expressing his displeasure at what he considered the phony heroics of Milestone's A Walk in the Sun (1945)] Why a man of your calibre should resort to a colonel's technical advice [the film's technical advisor was a US Army colonel] on what happens in a platoon is something I'll never figure out . . . When colonels are back in their garrison hutments where they belong I'll come out with a yarn that won't make any doggie that was ever on the line retch with disgust. Show less «

[about Run of the Arrow (1957)] The Confederate in that scene who sang the song against the Constitution was played by a Southerner, whose h...Show more »

[about Run of the Arrow (1957)] The Confederate in that scene who sang the song against the Constitution was played by a Southerner, whose hobby was collecting folklore and ballads. He loved it, being a Southerner and against the damn Yankees. My art director on the picture was a very virulent Yankee. I'm only telling you this because there's an evil streak in me that I like. I thought it would be wonderful to get them together in my office. I'll never forget it; it was the most wonderful moment of my life to introduce these two men who despised each other. They immediately got into a tremendous argument. I heard the whole Civil War fought all over again in my office. Show less «

I grew up believing that people make things move, like the word "movie". The world, like a moving picture, was moving forward. I wanted to a...Show more »

I grew up believing that people make things move, like the word "movie". The world, like a moving picture, was moving forward. I wanted to advance, too, as rapidly as my quick mind and fast legs would carry me. I also grew up believing in truth--not just the word itself, but the deeper conviction that getting to the truth was a noble cause. My nature has always been to tell people the truth, even if they feel insulted. I care too much about people to bullshit them. If they're offended by the truth, why waste my time on them? When a young director comes to me for advice on a script, I don't pull any punches, especially if the thing's overwritten. Show less «

I write with the camera. It is my typewriter.

The only way to bring the real experience of war to a movie audience is by firing a machine gun above their heads during the screening.