Writer, director and make-up effects artist Alan Ormsby was born on December 14, 1943. He was a drama student at the University of Florida. He met director Bob Clark while attending college. The pair first collaborated on the amusing tongue-in-cheek low-budget zombie horror hoot Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972). Ormsby not only co-wrote the script and did the effectively ghoulish zombie make-up, but also gave a deliciously hammy performance as arrogant and obnoxious theater group leader Alan. Ormsby's then-wife Anya portrays another group member; the couple later divorced in 1981. Ormsby and Clark followed this film with Le mort-vivant (1974) (aka Deathdream), which was a supremely potent and unnerving Vietnam-era variant on the classic short story "The Monkey's Paw." Next up for Ormsby was the excellent Deranged (1974), which he co-wrote, co-directed and handled make-up effects chores on along with a then-unknown Tom Savini (Savini also worked with Ormsby on the make-up effects for Deathdream). Deranged (1974) was a stunningly macabre and blackly humorous rural psycho item inspired by the notorious exploits of serial killer Ed Gein. Other movies Ormsby has penned screenplays for are the delightful teen coming-of-age winner My Bodyguard (1980), 'Paul Schrader's sexy and stylish La féline (1982) remake, the uproariously raunchy Porky's II (1983), and the exciting action opus The Substitute (1996). Ormsby did the genuinely creepy zombie make-up for the spooky Nazi horror doozy Le commando des morts-vivants (1977) and wrote the make-up effects book Movie Monsters in 1976. He created the popular doll Hugo: Man of a Thousand Faces, which was featured on both The Uncle Floyd Show (1974) and The Pee Wee Herman Show (1981). Ormsby co-wrote and directed the entertaining film-within-a-film segments for the hugely enjoyable slasher send-up Popcorn (1991). He's married to actress Hilary Thompson.
