Paul Morrisey, the filmmaker who found fame creating works alongside artist Andy Warhol, has died aged 86.
Among the cult films created by Morrissey were Flesh, Trash and Women in Revolt. He also worked with Warhol on managing and promoting the band The Velvet Underground and was also involved in the launch of Interview magazine.
His archivist, Michael Chaiken, confirmed that the director had passed away in a New York hospital after being treated for pneumonia.
Morrissey was a key figure in Warhol’s Factory conglomerate of artists and creative characters. Together they made low budget films that starred an assortment of actors, drag queens, socialites and models. Many transgender performers appeared in their films.
His best known work Trash was released in 1970 and featured Joe Dallesandro and Holly Woodlawn. Candy Darling was another performer from the Warhol stable who appeared in several of his works.
In 1973 he headed to Rome where he made to feature films Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula. Both films featured Dalessandro and German actor Udo Kier.
The success of these films allowed Morrissey to take on a directing role with a big studio film but the 1978 comedy version of the Sherlock Holmes tale Hound of the Baskervilles featuring Dudley Moore and Peter Cook was a box office flop. After this Morrissey returned to making more low budget fare.
Image: Paul Morrissey phot booth self portrait 1967. Published under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Source: Wikipedia.
