Fred Olen Ray

In 2017, he received a "Living Legend Award" at the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival.

Budgetary constraints notwithstanding, Ray has on occasion been able to attract A list actors to appear in his films. Two time Academy Award nominee Peter Fonda played Marshal Kane in the 2010 Ray film American Bandits: Frank and Jesse James. But, sometimes, even star power isn't enough to rescue a low-budget film. One reviewer described American Bandits as perhaps "the most boring Jesse James film ever made".

In 2001 he made the film Critical Mass. He later said he was a "Critical Mass kind of guy. I like to shoot things and blow stuff up. I also like comedies. Don't like erotic thrillers."

Evil Toons (1992) was a comedy-horror, then he co-directed another with Wynorski, Dinosaur Island (1994). Witch Academy (1994) was the last of his "scream queen" movies. After Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold (1995), he made Fugitive Rage (1996), Friend of the Family II (1996), Inferno (1997), Hybrid (1997), and The Shooter, which has been referred to as Ray's best film. Dear Santa (1998) was a family film and Billy Frankenstein (1998) a comedy.

Ray co-directed Scream Queen Hot Tub Party (1991) with Jim Wynorski, shot in one day. Ray moved into erotic thrillers with Inner Sanctum (1991) starring Tanya Roberts. It was a hit and Ray would make others in that genre, including Inner Sanctum 2, Mind Twister (1994) and Possessed by the Night (1994).

After Alienator (1989) he was reunited with Deezen for Mob Boss (1990), another comedy. He entered sword and sorcery movies with Wizards of the Demon Sword (1991) and made the more popular Bad Girls from Mars (1991). During this time he published a book he had written, The New Poverty Row: Independent Filmmakers as Distributors (1991).

Ray succeeded in raising money for a low budget horror film, Scalps (1983), which featured cameos from Carroll Borland and Forrest J. Ackerman. The Tomb (1986) starred Cameron Mitchell and John Carradine. Ray switched to action films with Armed Response (1986), which starred David Carradine and Lee Van Cleef. Ray had affection for this movie because "it had a great cast and was one of the first times I had more than two nickels to rub together." He then turned to science fiction: Deep Space (1987), Cyclone (1987). Beverly Hills Vamp (1988) was a horror comedy with Eddie Deezen. Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988) was made in only a few days and turned out to be a big hit. Less popular was The Phantom Empire (1988).

Ray served in the Navy. When he got out, he went to work at a local television station, in Orlando, Florida. He worked as an credited still photographer on his first film in 1975, Shock Waves, with Peter Cushing and John Carradine. Ray then began making movies on the weekend using station equipment, starting with The Brain Leeches (1978) made on a budget of $298.00. Ray co-wrote the screenplay with political essayist Brad Linaweaver, whose career trajectory took a turn toward science fiction and film after the experience.

Fred Olen Ray (born September 10, 1954) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter of more than 150 low-to-medium budget feature films in many genres, including horror, science fiction, action/adventure, crime dramas, and holiday films.

Fred Olen Ray was born September 10, 1954 in Wellston, Ohio, just across the border from West Virginia where the Ray family had all been raised for the previous 150 years. He has always been a passionate film fan, and as a teenager he regularly read Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. Being a fan of horror and science fiction films such as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and the AIP movies of the 1950s and 1960s, Ray started making his own movies at the age of fourteen.

Ray's next film was shot on a budget of $15,000. Lessons learned from The Brain Leeches allowed Ray to keep production cost to a minimum, while using the bulk of the budget to attract a recognized Hollywood name to the project. Alien Dead was shot featuring an elderly Buster Crabbe, cinema action hero of the 1930s and 1940, and star of three Flash Gordon serials from 1936-1940. With the success of that film, Ray decided to move to Hollywood to be close to the film industry. He was interested in working in make-up and special effects, "probably from all of those years of reading Famous Monsters magazine," he later said. He found out "it soon became apparent that you would always be between jobs and I was looking for something that would actually earn me a living. I think I became a director because that was the fastest way to get a film made on the independent side of things."