Jack Starrett

Jack Starrett was a superbly talented and versatile actor and director who specialized in making hugely enjoyable down-'n'-dirty low-budget drive-in exploitation pictures. Starrett was born on November 2, 1936, in Refugio, TX. He attended San Marcos Academy in the 1940s and the 1950s. He made his acting debut as "Coach Jennings" in Like Father, Like Son (1961) and his debut as a director with two superior biker features starring legendary B-movie tough guy William Smith: Run, Angel, Run! (1969) and The Losers (1970). The latter movie proved to be highly influential to subsequent action films made in the 1980s; its "bring the boys back home" Vietnam prisoners of war rescue operation premise was reused in such 1980s features as Uncommon Valor (1983), Missing in Action (1984) and Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985). His follow-up films Cry Blood, Apache (1970) and The Strange Vengeance of Rosalie (1972) were both regrettably mediocre, but Starrett bounced back with the exciting Jim Brown bl