José Ramón Larraz Gil (1929 – 3 September 2013) was a Spanish

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

of exploitation and horror films such as the erotic and bloody '' Vampyres'' (1974), ''The House that Vanished'' (1973), ''Symptoms'' (1974), ''Black Candles'' (1982) and ''Rest in Pieces'' (1987) among others.

Biography

Early life

Born in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Larraz earned a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

degree and moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1952, where he started his career as a comics writer for magazines like

Pilote ''Pilote'' (), for a while subtitled ''the magazine of Asterix and Obelix'' (French: ''Le Journal D’Astérix et D’Obélix'' ) was a French comics magazine published from 1959 to 1989. Showcasing most of the major Franco-Belgian comics, French ...

and Spirou. His most known creation was the action-comic series "Paul Foran", which he wrote under the name "Gil" and also made some artistic contributions to.

Career

Larraz moved to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, where he began making films, then in 1976 apparently relocated his operations back to Spain. He made many different types of films, but is best known for his horror films. ''

Symptoms Signs and symptoms are diagnostic indications of an illness, injury, or condition. Signs are objective and externally observable; symptoms are a person's reported subjective experiences. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature ...

'' was an official British entry at the

1974 Cannes Film Festival The 27th Cannes Film Festival took place from 9 to 24 May 1974. French filmmaker René Clair served as jury president for the main competition. The ''Grand Prix'', then the festival's main prize, was awarded to American filmmaker Francis Ford C ...

. His last few horror films were Spanish-American co-productions. He apparently retired from filmmaking in 1992 at age 63.

Death

Larraz died, aged 84, in

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

on 3 September 2013.

Filmography

References

Sources

* * *

External links

*
Lambiek - info on Larraz career as a comics writer
1929 births 2013 deaths Spanish screenwriters Spanish film directors Spanish comics writers Spanish comics artists {{Spain-film-director-stub