Paul Naschy


Paul Naschy was a Spanish movie actor, screenwriter, and director working primarily in horror films. His portrayals of numerous classic horror figures—The Wolfman, Frankenstein's monster, Count Dracula, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Fu Manchu and a mummy—earned him recognition as the Spanish Lon Chaney. He had one of the most recognizable faces in Spanish horror film. Naschy also starred in dozens of action films, historical dramas, crime movies, TV shows and documentaries. He also wrote the screenplays for most of his films and directed a number of them as well. King Juan Carlos I presented Naschy with Spain's Gold Medal Award for Fine Arts in 2001 in honor of his work, the Spanish equivalent of being knighted.

Biography

Naschy was born as Jacinto Molina Alvarez in Madrid in 1934, and grew up during the Spanish Civil War, a period of great turmoil in Spanish history. His father Enrique Molina was a successful furrier, and Naschy grew up in very comfortable surroundings, at one point living in a veritable country mansion. Naschy went to college initially to become an architect. After college, he started out as a professional weightlifter, but soon gravitated to acting and filmmaking. His favorite film character from childhood was the Wolf Man, dating back to when he saw the classic Universal film Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man as a child. At times, he tried his hand at designing record album covers, writing pulp western novels and drawing comic book stories, but did not meet with much success. In his 20s, Naschy moved back and forth between professional weightlifting and acting, but wasn't able to secure important roles, usually obtaining just bit parts.
Naschy had an uncredited bit part in the classic 1961 Biblical epic King of Kings and a few other films of that period, and the experience drew him further into filmmaking. While appearing as an extra in an episode of the American TV show I Spy that was being filmed in a remote country site in Spain in 1966, Naschy met horror icon Boris Karloff on the set, a thrill he never forgot.
In 1968, at age 34, he wrote a screenplay for a werewolf movie entitled The Mark of the Wolfman and managed to interest a Spanish film company called Maxper Producciones Cinematograficas into financing it. Naschy never intended to play "El Hombre Lobo", he just wound up with the part when the producer could not find a suitable actor..
The German distributors insisted he change his name from Jacinto Molina because it sounded too Spanish, which would have hurt the film's chances at the box offices in various countries outside of Spain. He created the name "Paul Naschy".... "Paul" after Pope Paul VI, and "Naschy" as a Germanic sounding version of "Imre Nagy", one of Naschy's weightlifting idols. Naschy later wrote and starred in eleven sequels featuring his Waldemar Daninsky werewolf character, and spun off a very successful acting and directing career in the process.
Naschy wrote the screenplays for most of the films he starred in, especially the horror movies. His most prolific year was 1972, during which he wrote and starred in no less than seven movies.
During the 1970s, he worked for some of the best Euro-horror film directors in the business, including León Klimovsky, Carlos Aured, Javier Aguirre, José Luis Madrid, Juan Piquer Simón, Francisco Lara Polop and José Luis Merino.
In 1976, he decided to try his hand at directing as well, choosing the costume drama Inquisición as his first project. He did well initially, even producing and directing a number of successful Japanese/Spanish co-productions and made-for-Spanish-TV documentaries, but by 1984, his films were no longer breaking even, and after losing a lot of money on his ill-conceived spy spoof Operation Mantis, Naschy's production company, Aconito Films, wound up in bankruptcy..
On June 20, 1984, Naschy's father Enrique Molina died of a heart attack while fishing alone on the shores of a lake. Some boys playing in the woods discovered his body, too late to revive him. The unexpected sudden loss of his father, coinciding with the bankruptcy of his production company, plunged Naschy into a lengthy period of depression, only returning to filmmaking in 1987 with his cult classic El Aullido del Diablo. Naschy's son Sergio starred in the film, along with famed horror icons Howard Vernon and Caroline Munro.
Naschy's career took a second downturn when he suffered a near-fatal heart attack himself on August 27, 1991, triggered by weightlifting in a local gym. He was hospitalized for more than a week, then had major heart surgery performed on September 5. A rumor circulated throughout horror film fandom that Naschy had died, since he disappeared from the film scene for a while after his operation. He had to later contact a number of fanzine publishers in various countries to inform them that he was still very much alive.
In 1996, Naschy wrote and starred in his eleventh werewolf film Licántropo, which he thought would be a big comeback film for him, but the movie did not do well at all, critically or financially. He continued to appear in a number of low budget horror films and crime dramas however during the following decade, during which time he won a number of prestigious fan awards and appeared as a celebrated guest at many horror film conventions during the 1990s and the 2000s, although he was always doing poorly financially and complained bitterly in interviews about the state of the corrupt Spanish film industry. In 1997, Naschy wrote a detailed autobiography entitled Memoirs of a Wolf Man.
Naschy even traveled to Hollywood briefly in 2004 to appear in two filmed-on-video horror flicks directed by Donald F. Glut and Fred Olen Ray, two former horror fans-turned-directors who must have treated him like royalty on the set. During his sojourn in Hollywood, Naschy even visited the famed "Ackermansion" museum of Forrest J. Ackerman, the editor of the legendary Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine.
Paul Naschy died of pancreatic cancer on November 30, 2009 at a hospital in Madrid, Spain at the age of 75. He struggled desperately to stay alive for over one year after being diagnosed with the cancer in 2008, but the end was inevitable. Although he ended his life in relatively poor financial straits, Naschy always received a tremendous outpouring of love from his many fans at the conventions he attended and died knowing he would always be regarded as a major horror film icon.
Naschy was married only once, on October 24, 1969, to a woman named Elvira Primavera, the daughter of an Italian diplomat living in Spain. They were still happily married 40 years later at the time of his death. His wife was always very supportive of Naschy's film making projects and was undoubtedly one of the factors that led to his success. He was survived by his widow Elvira and his two sons, Bruno and Sergio Molina.
Naschy's favorite director was León Klimovsky, with whom he made nine horror and action films. Naschy praised Klimovsky's professional workmanlike attitude, but he always felt that Klimovsky rushed through the filming and never allowed for enough retakes that might have improved some of their films. He also enjoyed working for director Carlos Aured, and was proud of the films they did together.
Paul Naschy was the only horror film actor and director who ever portrayed Dracula, the Mummy, the Frankenstein's monster, Fu Manchu, the Hunchback, Rasputin, a warlock, a zombie, a medieval Inquisitor, a serial killer.
A hardcover book entitled Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo was published in Germany after Naschy's death, collecting hundreds of rare photos, lobby cards, posters, etc. that had been used to promote Naschy's films over the decades in a number of different countries. A comprehensive film biography entitled Paul Naschy: The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry has also been released on DVD.

Most famous characters

The werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky is without a doubt Paul Naschy's most famous horror character, since he played Daninsky in 12 different films. In fact, Naschy holds the record for playing a werewolf the most number of times, easily beating out Lon Chaney Jr., who played a werewolf only seven times during his career.
Unlike the Chaney Universal films, however, which formed a somewhat chronological storyline from picture to picture, Naschy's Daninsky films were not connected to each other plotwise. Each film was more or less a free-standing story that was not meant to relate to the other films in the series in the way the old Universal films did. Daninsky's lycanthropy had a different origin in each film. This was probably for the best however, since in the 1970s, Euro-horror films were often theatrically distributed in the US several years after they were completed, and they probably would have all been released out of order anyway.
Naschy's only other recurring character was the villainous medieval warlock Alaric de Marnac and returned to life again in a sequel, Panic Beats ). Naschy claims he based this character on a real-life medieval nobleman named Gilles de Rais, a serial killer on whose life story Naschy also based the lead character in his 1974 film El Mariscal del Infierno

The ''Hombre Lobo'' series (featuring the Waldemar Daninsky character)

Naschy's twelve Hombre Lobo movies are not a series in the strictest sense. They seem to be a collection of unrelated plotlines, but all of which involve a werewolf named Count Waldemar Daninsky. Both La Furia del Hombre Lobo and La Maldicion de la Bestia refer to an origin involving Waldemar's being bitten by a yeti, but the other films presented him with entirely different origin stories. The fact that these films have also been retitled by the various film distributors many times over the years only adds to the confusion. Despite the numerous plot inconsistencies and convoluted flashbacks; however, Naschy's Wolf Man series as a whole is still considered his most famous work by most of his many fans.
Only eleven of the 12 Hombre Lobo films actually exist today. All traces of Las Noches del Hombre Lobo apparently vanished before the film was ever shown anywhere, and it remains a mystery to this day whether or not the film ever really existed at all in completed form. Naschy said in interviews that he specifically remembered going to Paris for a week to shoot his scenes for the film, but he went right back to Spain after completing his scenes and never saw any rushes. The French producer of the film, Rene Govar, is said to have died in a car accident in Paris a week after the filming was completed, and no one ever picked up the lab bill that was outstanding. Hence it is thought that the lab may have confiscated the film negative and years later they probably just discarded it. Naschy claimed he only became aware decades later that the film had never been released anywhere. Some Naschy fans think the film was scrapped in 1968 and the script may have been later rewritten to become the 4th film in the series, La Furia del Hombre Lobo. This is possible since Naschy himself vaguely remembered both films as having virtually the same plot.
In order of production, the Hombre Lobo films are as follows:
  1. La Marca del Hombre Lobo / Mark of the Wolf Man a.k.a. Frankenstein's Bloody Terror, a.k.a. The Vampire of Dr. Dracula, a.k.a. Hell's Creatures, a.k.a. The Nights of Satan, a.k.a. Hell Creature, The Ghosts of Dracula and the Werewolf, Mark of the Wolf Man and re-released years later in Germany as Hexen des Grauens / The Witches of Horror; directed by Enrique Eguiluz; originally filmed in 3-D and 70mm, but it was only shown that way in Germany; first released theatrically in Spain in July 1968; in Germany in Feb. 1969; in England in Feb. 1970; and in the U.S. in an edited version as Frankenstein's Bloody Terror in 1971; released to U.S. late-night television in 1974; re-released theatrically in Spain in 1976; released on VHS and later on DVD as Frankenstein's Bloody Terror.
  2. Las Noches del Hombre Lobo / The Nights of the Wolf Man directed in Paris allegedly by "Rene Govar";
  3. Los Monstruos del Terror / The Monsters of Terror a.k.a. Dracula vs Frankenstein, a.k.a. Dracula and the Wolf Man vs. Frankenstein, a.k.a. Operation Terror, a.k.a. Reincarnator, a.k.a. Assignment Terror ; the film's original shooting title was The Man Who Came From Ummo; co-directed by Hugo Fregonese & Tulio Demichelli ; first released theatrically in Germany in Feb. 1970, and in Spain in Aug. 1971; shown in U.S. in 1973 as Assignment Terror ; eventually released on U.S. video as Dracula vs. Frankenstein; still officially unreleased on DVD.
  4. La Furia del Hombre Lobo / The Fury of the Wolf Man a.k.a. Wolf Man Never Sleeps ; directed by Jose Maria Zabalza; only released theatrically in Spain & Argentina in 1975; shown in U.S. in 1974 edited as Fury of the Wolf Man; released on video/ DVD as Fury of the Wolf Man. The Swedish theatrical version Wolf Man Never Sleeps is the most complete of all.
  5. La Noche de Walpurgis / Walpurgis Night a.k.a. The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman, a.k.a. Shadow of the Werewolf, a.k.a. Night of the Vampire, a.k.a. Night of the Bloody Witches, a.k.a. The Black Mass of Countess Dracula, a.k.a. Werewolf's Shadow, a.k.a. Fury of the Vampires, a.k.a. Night of the Werewolves ; directed by León Klimovsky; Naschy's most famous & highest-grossing horror film, this was made in 70mm Stereo Technicolor; first released theatrically in Spain in May 1971, in Germany in October 1971, and in England in Oct. 1972; released theatrically in U.S. in 1972 as The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman ; released on VHS as both Blood Moon and The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman; released later on DVD uncut as Werewolf Shadow.
  6. Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo / Dr. Jekyll and the Wolf Man a.k.a. Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf, a.k.a. Night of the Bloody Wolf ; directed by León Klimovsky, co-starring Jack Taylor; first released theatrically in Spain in Nov. 1972, in Germany in April 1974, and in the U.K. in 1974; released theatrically in U.S. in 1973 as Doctor Jekyll and the Werewolf; available on DVD uncut as Dr. Jekyll and the Wolf Man.
  7. El Retorno de Walpurgis / The Return of Walpurgis a.k.a. Curse of the Devil, a.k.a. Night of the Fiendish Orgy, a.k.a. Die Todeskralle des Grausamen Wolfes / Death Grip of the Cruel Wolves, a.k.a. Night of the Killer, a.k.a. L'Empreinte de Dracula / The Mark of Dracula, a.k.a. Return of the Werewolf ; directed by Carlos Aured; first released theatrically in Spain in September 1973, and in Germany & England in Summer 1974; it was only released theatrically in the U.S. in 1976 as Curse of the Devil; released on DVD uncut as Curse of the Devil.
  8. La Maldicion de la Bestia / Curse of the Beast a.k.a. Night of the Howling Beast, a.k.a. The Werewolf and the Yeti, a.k.a. In the Claws of the Werewolf, a.k.a. Curse of the Beast, a.k.a. Loup Garou / The Werewolf ; directed by Miguel Iglesias Bonns; Naschy won Best Actor Award for "Curse of the Beast" at the 1975 Catalan Int'l Film Festival at Sitges, Spain; first released theatrically in Spain in January 1975; theatrically released in U.S. in 1977 as Night of the Howling Beast; released on U.S. video alternately as The Werewolf and the Yeti, Night of the Howling Beast, and Hall of the Mountain King; still officially unreleased on DVD.
  9. El Retorno del Hombre Lobo / Return of the Wolf Man a.k.a. The Craving, Night of the Werewolf, a.k.a. The Werewolf ; directed by Paul Naschy; this was Naschy's all-time favorite Hombre Lobo film, being a remake of his earlier Walpurgis Night; first released theatrically in Spain in 1981, and in Germany in 1984; released theatrically in the U.S. in 1985 as The Craving; released on U.S. video in 1986 as The Craving; later released on DVD as Night of the Werewolf.
  10. La Bestia y la Espada Magica / The Beast and the Magic Sword ; a Spanish/ Japanese co-production; written, co-produced & directed by Paul Naschy; Naschy's wife and two sons appeared in a brief cameo in this film; released theatrically only in Spain in Nov. 1983; never released theatrically in Japan; never dubbed into English nor shown in the U.S.; still unavailable on DVD
  11. Licántropo a.k.a. Licantropo: the Full Moon Killer, a.k.a. Lycantropus: the Moonlight Murders; directed by Francisco Gordillo; film was only shown theatrically in Spain in 1996; no U.S. theatrical release; distributed directly to U.S. DVD dubbed into English as Licantropo.
  12. Tomb of the Werewolf directed in Hollywood by Fred Olen Ray, co-starring Michelle Bauer; the original shooting title was The Unliving; filmed on video in English ; no theatrical release; distributed directly to VHS as Tomb Of The Werewolf, and then issued as an uncensored DVD as The Unliving by Retromedia Entertainment.
There were four other Paul Naschy werewolf films that were not part of the Waldemar Daninsky series, as follows:
Paul Naschy starred in many other horror films that did not feature el Hombre Lobo, as well as a number of crime films, costume dramas, action thrillers, etc. Below is a comprehensive list of all his movies, in strict chronological order of production. Dates shown are when the films were made, not when they were theatrically released in various foreign markets. This information was taken from Naschy's own autobiography and the release date information is much more accurate than that found on any other websites.
Note - Naschy allegedly played uncredited bit parts in the following films: King of Kings ; El Principe Encadenado / The Chained Prince ; Operation Plus Ultra ; Las Viudas / The Widows ; and La Esclava del Paraiso / Slave of Paradise. In most of these films, if you blinked, you'd miss him. Naschy allegedly acted as an assistant to the director on two other films, Aventura en el Palacio Viejo and Cronica de Nueve Meses.
Naschy died on November 30, 2009 in Madrid, Spain.