Paul Bartel
(August 6, 1938 - May 13, 2000) U.S.A.
Character Actor, director, and actor
Paul Bartel is a gay film director and actor in over 50 films, including Gregg Araki's The Living End; and a writer. "When I got into directing I knew I'd be able to give myself some great character parts," recalled Paul Bartel, who also got many of his character roles from directors that were fans of his cult hits: Eating Raoul, Lust in the Dust, Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of William and Jesse Bartel, Bartel's father was an advertising executive. Bartel had an early interest in theatre starting with the Nutley Little Theatre, and continuing on through high school. After graduating from Montclair High School in Montclair, New Jersey, Bartel studied theater and film at UCLA where he won awards for acting and playwriting. "I originally had to chose between UCLA and staying in New York and attending the Actor's Studio," noted Bartel. "I decided that I didn't want to be at the mercy of other people. I wanted to the one telling the story."
Upon graduating, Bartel was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study film directing at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. After two years in the army and three years of documentary film work, Bartel was signed to direct his first feature, Private Parts. The film lead to an assignment from famed low-budget producer Roger Corman to direct Death Race 2000, starring a then unknown Sylvester Stallone.
In 1982, Bartel turned to self-financing his own films when he got tired of the poor scripts that he was being offered. His first film Eating Raoul, in which he co-starred with old friend Mary Woronov, became a cult hit. In the years that followed, Bartel became synonymous with off-beat black comedies, and he influenced a generation of independent filmmakers. He died for liver cancer in new York.
 Paul Bartel decided he wanted to direct animated movies when he was 11 and by 13 had spent a summer working at New York's UPA animation studio. He majored in theater arts at UCLA, and received a Fulbright scholarship to study film direction in Rome, producing a short that was presented at the 1962 Venice Fiom Festival. He later was hired by Roger Corman's brother, Gene, to direct a low-budget horror featured called "Private Parts, " released in 1972.
Roger Corman hired him as a second unit director on "Big Bad Mama, " which led to his directing "Death Race 2000" in 1978. He could not persuade Corman to finance his pet project, "Eating Raoul." The $500,000 black comedy was made after his parents sold their New Jersey home and gave him the money. Shot in 22 days, mostly weekends, over the course of a year, "Eating Raoul, " starred Bartel and Mary Woronov as gourmet cannibals who lure sex swingers to their apartment, smack them with a skillet, rob them and use the proceeds to buy a restaurant.
biography by P. D. O'Reilly
Films:
- Hi, Mom! (1970)
- Private Parts (1972)
- Big Bad Mama (1974)
- Death Race 2000 (1975)
- Cannonball (1976)
- Eat My Dust (1976)
- Hollywood Boulevard (1976)
- Piranha (1978)
- Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)
- White Dog (1982)
- Eating Raoul (1982)
- Heart Like a Wheel (1983)
- Not for Publication (1984)
- Lust in the Dust (1985)
- Into the Night (1985)
- National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)
- Chopping Mall (1985)
- The Longshot (1986)
- Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)
- Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989)
- Gremlins 2 (1990)
- The New Batch (1990)
- The Pope Must Diet (1991)
- The Living End (1992)
- Tales of the City (1993)
- Grief (1993)
- Posse (1993)
- Shelf Life (1993)
- Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998)
- More Tales of the City (1998)
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