Gary Graver

Husband, Father,
Filmmaker
1938-2006

Gary Graver was an American filmmaker whose career spanned five decades.Please enjoy this collection of photos, videos and stories.

© Cayce Pollard. All rights reserved.

Biography

Gary Graver was born in Portland, Oregon on July 20, 1938.Even as a teenager he was obsessed with movies. He hosted a radio show and built a 16 mm theater in his parents’ basement.At age 20 he moved to Hollywood to pursue acting, but was soon drafted into the U.S. military during the Vietnam war.He switched from the Army to the Navy and served as a combat cameraman in Vietnam, gaining formal training as a professional cinematographer.After military service Graver broke into filmmaking by working on low‐budget features.He wrote and directed his first feature The Embracers in 1966 and thereafter shot dozens of B‑movies (often for Roger Corman’s producers).In 1970 he famously cold‑called his idol, Orson Welles, at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Welles told him only one other cameraman (Citizen Kane’s Gregg Toland) had ever done so.Impressed by Graver’s resourcefulness, Welles hired him on the spot to shoot tests for The Other Side of the Wind.Graver later recalled to Welles: “I knew how to make a movie without much money, and he liked that”Graver became Welles’s principal cinematographer for the next 15 years, working on Welles’s later projects such as F For Fake (1973), Filming Othello (1978), It’s All True (unfinished, released 1993) and other clips.Welles regarded him almost as a son. Graver’s widow Jillian Kesner-Graver said Welles was “like a father to him,” and that finishing The Other Side of the Wind “was the most important thing in his life”During the 1970s and ’80s Graver remained extremely busy in Hollywood. He shot mainstream films like John Cassavetes’s A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Ron Howard’s Grand Theft Auto (1977)He became known as a go‑to cinematographer for horror and exploitation pictures: for example Satan’s Sadists (1969), Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1969–71), The Toolbox Murders (1978), Trick or Treats (1982, which he also wrote and directed), Mortuary (1983), They’re Playing with Fire (1984), Chattanooga Choo Choo (1984), Twisted Nightmare (1988) and many similar titles.He prided himself on being able to “shoot a film for less money than anyone else,” a skill that attracted Welles and other directors.He even contributed additional cinematography on Spielberg’s Always (1989) and shot second unit footage on TV series like The Orson Welles Show (1979) and The Orson Welles Magic Show (1985).Under the pseudonym, Robert McCallum, Graver was also prolific in the adult‑film industry, directing or shooting over 135 features.In that realm his 1985 feature Unthinkable won an AVN award, and he was later inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame. He even used Ed Wood’s famous alias “Akdov Telmig” on some projects as a tongue‑in‑cheek homage.Graver married actress/historian Jillian Kesner in 1981; they worked together to preserve Welles’s legacyGary Graver died of cancer on November 16, 2006, at age 68, at his home in Rancho Mirage, CaliforniaHe was survived by Jillian and two sons from earlier marriagesJillian herself died of cancer a year later in 2007.

Filmography

These are the actual papers that Gary kept of his credits.Instead of re-typing them, we thought you might like to see these.He always used a typewriter for documents like this.Although he owned computers, when it came to writing, he always preferred the feel of a typewriter.While his IMDB credits list is much larger, these are the projects that he kept on a list.

Videos

Selected photos

Stories

ORSON WELLES OSCAR:
During The Other Side of the Wind shoot, Welles gave Graver his 1941 Oscar statuette as a form of payment.Like Welles, Graver didn't care much about trophies or awards, so he sold the Oscar in 1994 for $50,000 to a private party.Welles’s daughter, Beatrice, successfully sued Graver claiming that the Oscar was not a gift from her father, but a request for safekeeping and eventually reclaimed the trophy.ED WOOD COLLABORATION:
In the late 1960s Graver worked for a period with “schlock” filmmaker Ed Wood Jr. In fact, he shot the 1969 caveman movie One Million A.C. (later retitled One Million AC/DC), and afterward adopted Wood’s humorous pseudonym Akdov Telmig (a play on “Vodka Gimlet” backwards) for use on several of Graver’s own exploitation films in the 1970s–90s.TALENT FOR QUALITY ON A LOW BUDGET:
Graver’s ability to film on a shoestring budget was legendary.Welles was specifically attracted to Graver’s claim that he “could shoot a film for less money than anyone else.”Graver himself said, “I knew how to make a movie without much money, and [Welles] liked that.”FINALLY PROJECTS:
Graver remained dedicated to finishing Welles’s last film.Even into the 2000s he was raising funds to complete The Other Side of the Wind.In 2005 he joined Oja Kodar at a Welles retrospective in Locarno, Switzerland, to present the existing footage and talk about the project.Sadly, he died before the film was finally finished.Graver’s story is told in his 2008 memoir Making Movies with Orson Welles (co‑written with Andrew Rausch) and in the “We Must Shoot” documentary.The 2021 Blu-ray set The Other Side of Gary Graver (from Gold Ninja Video) includes audio and video interviews with Graver (and friends like actress Jewel Shepard) as well as commentators Will Sloan, Justin Decloux, Dave Wain, Matty Budrewicz and biographer Andrew Rausch.

If you have any questions or comments, please use this form to send me a message. I will reply as soon as possible.Thanks,
Sean Graver (Gary's oldest son)