Hampton Fancher

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Hampton Fancher
Fancher in 2017
Born
Hampton Lansden Fancher

(1938-07-18) July 18, 1938 (age 85)
East Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other namesMario Montejo
Occupations
  • Screenwriter
  • producer
  • actor
  • director
Known forBlade Runner
Blade Runner 2049
The Minus Man
Spouses
Joann McNabb
​
​
(m. 1957; div. 1963)​
​
​
(m. 1963; div. 1965)​
Awards

Hampton Lansden Fancher (born July 18, 1938)[1][2] is an American actor, screenwriter, and filmmaker, who co-wrote the 1982 neo-noir science fiction film Blade Runner and its 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049, based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. His 1999 directorial debut, The Minus Man, won the Special Grand Prize of the Jury at the Montreal World Film Festival.

He lives in the Brooklyn Heights district of New York City.

Early life[edit]

Fancher was born to a Mexican mother[3] and an English-American father, a physician, in East Los Angeles, California.[4] At 15, he ran away to Spain to become a flamenco dancer and renamed himself "Mario Montejo". Following the breakup of his marriage to Joann McNabb, he was married to Sue Lyon from 1963 to 1965.[5]

Career[edit]

In 1959, Fancher appeared in the episode "Misfits" of the ABC western television series The Rebel.[citation needed]

Fancher played Deputy Lon Gillis in seven episodes of the ABC western Black Saddle with Peter Breck. He guest-starred on other westerns: Have Gun, Will Travel, Tate, Stagecoach West, Outlaws, Maverick (in the fourth-season episode "Last Stop: Oblivion"), Lawman, Temple Houston, Cheyenne (1961 episode "Incident at Dawson Flats"), and also Bonanza (1966 episode "A Dollar's Worth of Trouble"). In 1967, Fancher guest-starred on Mannix in the episode “Turn Every Stone.”[6]

Fancher appeared in two Troy Donahue films, 1961's Parrish and 1962's Rome Adventure, and was cast as Larry Wilson in the 1963 episode "Little Richard" of the CBS anthology series GE True, hosted by Jack Webb.[citation needed] In 1965, he played the role of Hamp Fisher in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Silent Six." Fancher acted in more than 50 movies and television shows. During this time, he also had relationships with a variety of women, including Barbara Hershey and Teri Garr. Although he showed interest in screenwriting, it took until 1977 for Fancher to transition fully into it. He continues to act occasionally.[7]

After trying to option Philip K. Dick's 1968 science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in 1975, and unable to secure the rights, Fancher sent his friend Brian Kelly, a prospective film producer, to negotiate with Dick.[8] Dick agreed, and Fancher was brought on to write a screenplay before Kelly would later enlist the support of producer Michael Deeley.[9] This made Fancher the executive producer, which led to disagreements with eventual director Ridley Scott, who then brought in David Peoples to continue reworking the script. Scott and Fancher had already clashed concerning the movie, as Scott felt the original script did not sufficiently explore the world of the movie, choosing instead to focus on the interior drama. Fancher's rewriting process was too slow for the production crew, which nicknamed him "Happen Faster".[10] The movie was ultimately filmed and released as Blade Runner (1982).[11]

Fancher wrote two films following Blade Runner. The Mighty Quinn (1989) starred Denzel Washington and The Minus Man (1999) starred Owen Wilson. Fancher also directed the latter.[12] More recently, he wrote the story and co-wrote, with Michael Green, the screenplay for Blade Runner 2049 (2017), a sequel to the 1982 film.

In the early 1980s, Fancher lived outside of Los Angeles in Topanga Canyon. Fancher appeared in a cameo role in the independent film Tonight at Noon (2009), directed by Michael Almereyda and starring Rutger Hauer.

In 2019, Fancher published The Wall Will Tell You, a screenwriting manual.[13] The book draws from his personal experiences.

Later work[edit]

Fancher provided voiceover commentary for The Criterion Collection edition DVD extras of the film noir adaptations of Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Killers", which included the 1946, 1956 and 1964 versions.

His life was the subject of Escapes, a documentary directed by Michael Almereyda and executive-produced by Wes Anderson.[2]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
1958 The Brain Eaters Zombie (uncredited)
1961 Parrish Edgar Raike
1962 Rome Adventure Albert Stillwell
1965 The Incredible Sex Revolution Harold Morton
1970 Mir hat es immer Spaß gemacht Gino
1975 The Other Side of the Mountain Lee Zadroga
1976 Survive! Hampton
1982 Blade Runner Writer and executive producer
1989 The Mighty Quinn Writer
1999 The Minus Man Director and writer
2005 Men's League Unknown cameo Short film
2009 Tonight at Noon Himself Cameo appearance
2010 Hands & Eyes The Art Critic Short film
2017 2036: Nexus Dawn Writer; short films
2048: Nowhere to Run
Blade Runner 2049 Writer

Television[edit]

Year(s) Title Role(s) Notes
1958-1960 Have Gun - Will Travel Ben Dawes / Beau Crommer / Keith Loring 3 episodes
1959 Zane Grey Theater Linc Episode ''Deadfall''
Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond Tim Plunkett Episode ''The Burning Girl''
The D.A.'s Man Danny Wilder Episode ''Out of Town''
The Lineup Rivers Episode ''Wake Up to Terror''
Law of the Plainsman Harver Episode ''A Matter of Life and Death''
The Rebel Bull Episode ''Misfits''
1959-1960 Black Saddle Orv Tibbett / Deputy Gillis / Lon Gillis 7 episodes
1959-1965 Gunsmoke Gunman / Dunc Hedgepeth / Clem / Milton Clum 4 episodes
1960 The Detectives Frankie Episode ''Time and Tide''
Father Knows Best Rudy Kissler Episode ''Blind Date''
Tate Coley Episode ''Quiet After the Storm''
Outlaws Mike Duane Episode ''Shorty''
1961 Cheyenne Jasper Dawson Episode ''Incident at Dawson Flats''
The Best of the Post Urknown Episode ''Frontier Correspondent''
Stagecoach West Adam Episode ''Not in Our Stars''
Maverick Tate McKenna Episode ''Last Stop: Oblivion''
Lawman Lester Beason Episode ''Conditional Surrender''
The Rifleman Corey Hazlitt Episode ''The Decision''
1962-1964 Rawhide Billy Hobson / Jake Hammerklein 3 episodes
1963 GE True Larry Wilson Episode ''Little Richard''
Temple Houston Jim Stocker Episode ''The Third Bullet''
Death Valley Days Ned Murphy Episode ''The Red Ghost of Eagle Creek''
1963-1964 77 Sunset Strip Len / Chuck Gates Jr. 2 episodes
1964 The Great Adventure Fleming Episode ''Rodger Young''
Arrest and Trial Raymond Episode ''Somewhat Lower Than the Angels''
1965 Perry Mason Hamp Fisher Episode ''The Case of the Silent Six"
1966 The Fugitive Homer Episode ''The 2130''
Bonanza Craig Bonner Episode ''A Dollar's Worth of Trouble''
The Road West Gray Yeater Episode ''Piece of Tin''
The Monroes Carl Goff Episode ''Silent Night, Deadly Night''
1967 Daniel Boone Tad Arlen / Lieutenant Noland 2 episodes
1967-1972 Mannix Cornwall Dover / Carl Loder (uncredited) 2 episodes
1969 Romeo und Julia '70 Romeo Müller, Taxichauffeur Mini-Series
2 episodes
1969-1972 Adam-12 Philip Bartell / Ray 2 episodes
1973 Of Men and Women Himself Unsold pilot
Segment ''The Interview''
1974 Get Christie Love! Rod Episode ''Get Christie Love!''
The Stranger Who Looks Like Me Adoptive Parent #3 TV movie
1976 Switch Jeff Louden Episode ''Pirates of Tin Pan Alley''
The Blue Knight Guss Fermin Episode ''Bull's Eye''
1977 Police Story Pike Harriman Episode ''One of Our Cops Is Crazy''
1978 Last of the Good Guys Officer George Talltree (uncredited) TV movie

References[edit]

  1. ^ Arn, Jackson (2019). "The Wall Will Tell You: The Forensics of Screenwriting". Cineaste. Archived from the original on May 27, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Dargis, Manohla (July 25, 2017). "Review: 'Escapes' Recounts a Hollywood Storyteller's Inventive Life". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 9, 2022. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  3. ^ Alhadeff, Gini (2009). "Hampton Fancher Pray for rain". bidoun.org. Archived from the original on April 27, 2023. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  4. ^ Gettingit.com: Life of a Hollywood Scribe Archived June 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "Movies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 8, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  6. ^ "Mannix". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on January 3, 2023. Retrieved January 3, 2023.
  7. ^ Friend, Tad (August 21, 2017). "Hampton Fancher on the Edge of Fame". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on October 31, 2018. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
  8. ^ Epstein, Sonia (September 29, 2017). "Interview with Writer Hampton Fancher of Blade Runner". Sloan Science & Film. Archived from the original on September 29, 2017. Retrieved September 29, 2017.
  9. ^ TURAN, KENNETH (September 13, 1992). "Blade Runner 2 : The Screenwriter Wrote Eight Drafts--and Then Was Replaced. On His First Day, The Director Turned The Set Upside Down. Harrison Ford Was Never So Miserable. Years Later, Someone Stumbled Over The Long-lost Original. Nothing About This Cult Classic Was Ever Simple". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Archived from the original on October 9, 2017. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
  10. ^ Schulman, Michael (September 14, 2017). "The Battle for Blade Runner". Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on July 6, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
  11. ^ Maslin, Janet (June 25, 1982). "Futuristic 'Blade Runner'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 7, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  12. ^ Kirschbaum, Susan M. (August 22, 1999). "A NIGHT OUT: With Wes Anderson; Dissecting Films And Serial Killers". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 31, 2017. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
  13. ^ "The Wall Will Tell You by Hampton Fancher: 9781612197616 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Archived from the original on November 3, 2018. Retrieved November 3, 2018.

External links[edit]

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