William Crain (born June 20, 1949) is an American film and television director. He was one of the first black filmmakers from a major film school to achieve commercial success. Crain was born in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. A graduate of

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

's film school, Crain, unlike many of the so-called "

L.A. Rebellion The L.A. Rebellion film movement, sometimes referred to as the "Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers", or the UCLA Rebellion, refers to the new generation of young African and African-American filmmakers who studied at the UCLA Film School in ...

" filmmakers who made films of a deeply personal or political nature, made work consisting almost entirely of mainstream and genre driven works. Throughout the 1970s he directed TV shows and movies. In 1972, he directed

Blacula ''Blacula'' is a 1972 American blaxploitation horror film directed by William Crain. It stars William Marshall in the title role about an 18th-century African prince named Mamuwalde, who is turned into a vampire (and later locked in a coffin) b ...

. While largely ignored by critics, the film has become somewhat of a cult favorite and made a name for actor William Marshall who played the title character. Crain did other films, then returned to TV show installments which he continues to do today. Many sources confuse him with another Bill/William Crain who produced educational short films in the 1970s, and directed ''Mirage'' (1990) and ''Midnight Fear'' (1991).http://www.crainstudios.com/About(Note: Incorrect footnote and link reference to the wrong individual listed in the article)

Filmography

* '' Brother John'' (1971) (intern) * ''

'' (1972) (director) * ''

Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde ''Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde'' is a 1976 blaxploitation horror film loosely inspired by the 1886 novella '' Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film stars Bernie Casey and Rosalind Cash, and was directed by Willi ...

'' (1976) (director) * ''Nothing as It Seems'' (2016) (director)

References

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External links

* 1949 births African-American film directors English-language film directors Living people Artists from Columbus, Ohio L.A. Rebellion UCLA Film School alumni Blaxploitation film directors Film directors from Ohio 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people {{US-film-director-1940s-stub