From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Phil Karlson July 2 1908 Chicago Illinois December 12 1985 Los Angeles California was a film director known for his nononsense film noirs Karlson directed 99 River Street Kansas City Confidential and Hells Island all with actor John Payne in the early 1950s Other films include Rocky 1948 The Phenix City Story 1955 5 Against the House 1955 and The Young Doctors 1961 Phil Karlson was the son of popular Irish actress Lillian OBrien He studied painting at Chicagos Art Institute and law at his fathers request at Loyola Marymount University in California Karlson got into the film industry working as a prop man while a law student After working a number of film jobs including being an assistant director for a number of Abbott and Costello films Karlson directed his first film in 1944 and in 1948 directed the first film starring Marilyn Monroe Ladies of the Chorus He worked on a number of lowbudget projects for Monogram Pictures and EagleLion Films before making his mark in 1950 It was then that he was known for directing tough realistic and sometimes violent gritty crime films In the 1960s the quality of his directed films declined which included working on Kid Galahad 1962 with Elvis Presley and two Dean Martin Matt Helm spy films including The Wrecking Crew 1969 costarring Sharon Tate and Elke Sommer He had his biggest success in 1973 when he directed the hit film Walking Tall The film made the director a rich man many times over thanks to the fact that he owned a huge part of the movie Description above from the Wikipedia article Phil Karlson licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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