Hampton Fancher
Hampton Lansden Fancher (born July 18, 1938) is an American actor, screenwriter, and filmmaker, best known for co-writing the 1982 neo-noir science fiction film Blade Runner and its 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049, based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. His 1999 directorial debut, The Minus Man, won the Special Grand Prize of the Jury at the Montreal World Film Festival.
Hampton Fancher | |
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Fancher at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con | |
Born | Hampton Lansden Fancher July 18, 1938 |
Other names | Mario Montejo |
Occupation | Screenwriter, producer, actor, director |
Known for | Blade Runner Blade Runner 2049 The Minus Man |
Spouse(s) |
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Awards |
He currently resides in the Brooklyn Heights district of New York City.
Early life
Fancher was born to a Mexican-Danish mother[1] and an American father, a physician, in East Los Angeles, California.[2] At 15, he ran away to Spain to become a flamenco dancer and renamed himself "Mario Montejo". Following the breakup of his marriage to Joann McNabb, he was married to Sue Lyon from 1963 to 1965.[3]
Career
In 1959, Fancher appeared in the episode "Misfits" of the ABC western television series, The Rebel. In the storyline, Fancher used the name "Bull" with Malcolm Cassell as Billy the Kid and Hal Stalmaster as "Skinny" plot to rob a bank so that they can live thereafter without working. The "Misfits" enlist the help of The Rebel (Nick Adams) in carrying out their doomed scheme.[4]
Fancher then played Deputy Lon Gillis in seven episodes of the ABC western, Black Saddle, with Peter Breck. He guest starred on other westerns, Have Gun, Will Travel, Tate, Stagecoach West, Outlaws, Maverick, Lawman, Temple Houston, Cheyenne (1961 episode "Incident at Dawson Flats"), and also Bonanza (1966 episode "A Dollar's Worth of Trouble").
Fancher appeared in two Troy Donahue films: 1961's Parrish and 1962's Rome Adventure and was cast as Larry Wilson in the 1963 episode "Little Richard" of the CBS anthology series, GE True, hosted by Jack Webb.[5] In 1965, he played the role of Hamp Fisher (a name very similar to his own), in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Silent Six." All in all, Fancher played roles in over fifty movies and television shows. During this time, he also had relationships with a variety of women, including Barbara Hershey and Teri Garr. Although he showed interest in screenwriting, it would take until 1977 for Fancher to transition fully into screenwriting. He continues to act occasionally.[6]
After trying to option Philip K. Dick's 1968 science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in 1975, when the rights were not available, Fancher sent his friend Brian Kelly, a prospective film producer.[7] Dick agreed, and Fancher was brought on to write a screenplay before Kelly enlisted the support of producer Michael Deeley.[8] This made Fancher the executive producer, which led to disagreements with the eventual director Ridley Scott who then brought in David Peoples to continue reworking the script. Scott and Fancher had already clashed concerning the movie, as Scott felt the original script did not sufficiently explore the world of the movie, choosing instead to focus on the interior drama. Fancher's rewriting process was too slow for the production crew, which nicknamed him "Happen Faster".[9] The movie was ultimately filmed and released as Blade Runner (1982).[10]
Fancher wrote two films following Blade Runner. The Mighty Quinn (1989), starred Denzel Washington, and The Minus Man (1999), starred Owen Wilson. The latter he also directed.[11] More recently, he wrote the story and co-wrote, with Michael Green, the screenplay for Blade Runner 2049 (2017), a sequel to the 1982 film.
In the early 1980s, Fancher wrote and lived outside of Los Angeles in Topanga Canyon. Fancher appeared in a cameo role in the independent film Tonight at Noon (2009), directed by Michael Almereyda and starring Rutger Hauer.
In 2019, Fancher will publish a screenwriting manual, The Wall Will Tell You.[12] The book draws from his extensive film experience.
Later work
Fancher provided voiceover commentary for The Criterion Collection edition DVD extras of the film noir adaptations of Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Killers", which included the 1946, 1956 and 1964 versions.
His life was the subject of Escapes, a documentary directed by Michael Almereyda and executive-produced by Wes Anderson.
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1958 | The Brain Eaters | Zombie (uncredited) | |
1961 | Parrish | Edgar Raike | |
1962 | Rome Adventure | Albert Stillwell | |
1965 | The Incredible Sex Revolution | Harold Morton | |
1970 | Mir hat es immer Spaß gemacht | Gino | |
1975 | The Other Side of the Mountain | Lee Zadroga | |
1976 | Survive! | Hampton | |
1982 | Blade Runner | N/A | Screenwriter (with David Peoples) Executive Producer (with Brian Kelly) |
1989 | The Mighty Quinn | N/A | Screenwriter |
1999 | The Minus Man | N/A | Screenwriter Directorial Debut |
2005 | Men's League | Urknown | Short |
2009 | Tonight at Noon | Himself | Cameo appearance |
2010 | Hands & Eyes | The Art Critic | Short |
2017 | 2036: Nexus Dawn | N/A | Shorts Screenwriter (with Michael Green) |
2048: Nowhere to Run | N/A | ||
Blade Runner 2049 | N/A | Screenwriter (with Michael Green) |
Television
Year(s) | Title | Role(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1958-1960 | Have Gun - Will Travel | Ben Dawes / Beau Crommer / Keith Loring | 3 episodes |
1959 | Zane Grey Theater | Linc | Episode ''Deadfall'' |
Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond | Tim Plunkett | Episode ''The Burning Girl'' | |
The D.A.'s Man | Danny Wilder | Episode ''Out of Town'' | |
The Lineup | Rivers | Episode ''Wake Up to Terror'' | |
Law of the Plainsman | Harver | Episode ''A Matter of Life and Death'' | |
The Rebel | Bull | Episode ''Misfits'' | |
1959-1960 | Black Saddle | Orv Tibbett / Deputy Gillis / Lon Gillis | 7 episodes |
1959-1965 | Gunsmoke | Gunman / Dunc Hedgepeth / Clem / Milton Clum | 4 episodes |
1960 | The Detectives | Frankie | Episode ''Time and Tide'' |
Father Knows Best | Rudy Kissler | Episode ''Blind Date'' | |
Tate | Coley | Episode ''Quiet After the Storm'' | |
Outlaws | Mike Duane | Episode ''Shorty'' | |
1961 | Cheyenne | Jasper Dawson | Episode ''Incident at Dawson Flats'' |
The Best of the Post | Urknown | Episode ''Frontier Correspondent'' | |
Stagecoach West | Adam | Episode ''Not in Our Stars'' | |
Maverick | Tate McKenna | Episode ''Last Stop: Oblivion'' | |
Lawman | Lester Beason | Episode ''Conditional Surrender'' | |
The Rifleman | Corey Hazlitt | Episode ''The Decision'' | |
1962-1964 | Rawhide | Billy Hobson / Jake Hammerklein | 3 episodes |
1963 | GE True | Larry Wilson | Episode ''Little Richard'' |
Temple Houston | Jim Stocker | Episode ''The Third Bullet'' | |
Death Valley Days | Ned Murphy | Episode ''The Red Ghost of Eagle Creek'' | |
1963-1964 | 77 Sunset Strip | Len / Chuck Gates Jr. | 2 episodes |
1964 | The Great Adventure | Fleming | Episode ''Rodger Young'' |
Arrest and Trial | Raymond | Episode ''Somewhat Lower Than the Angels'' | |
1965 | Perry Mason | Hamp Fisher | Episode ''The Case of the Silent Six" |
1966 | The Fugitive | Homer | Episode ''The 2130'' |
Bonanza | Craig Bonner | Episode ''A Dollar's Worth of Trouble'' | |
The Road West | Gray Yeater | Episode ''Piece of Tin'' | |
The Monroes | Carl Goff | Episode ''Silent Night, Deadly Night'' | |
1967 | Daniel Boone | Tad Arlen / Lieutenant Noland | 2 episodes |
1967-1972 | Mannix | Cornwall Dover / Carl Loder (uncredited) | 2 episodes |
1969 | Romeo und Julia '70 | Romeo Müller, Taxichauffeur | Mini-Series 2 episodes |
1969-1972 | Adam-12 | Philip Bartell / Ray | 2 episodes |
1973 | Of Men and Women | Himself | Unsold pilot Segment ''The Interview'' |
1974 | Get Christie Love! | Rod | Episode ''Get Christie Love!'' |
The Stranger Who Looks Like Me | Adoptive Parent #3 | TV Movie | |
1976 | Switch | Jeff Louden | Episode ''Pirates of Tin Pan Alley'' |
The Blue Knight | Guss Fermin | Episode ''Bull's Eye'' | |
1977 | Police Story | Pike Harriman | Episode ''One of Our Cops Is Crazy'' |
1978 | Last of the Good Guys | Officer George Talltree (uncredited) | TV Movie |
References
- "Interview with Hampton Fancher, October 2017". Aesop.com. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
- Gettingit.com: Life of a Hollywood Scribe Archived June 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- "Movies" – via NYTimes.com.
- ""Misfits", The Rebel, November 29, 1959". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
- "Hampton Fancher". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
- Friend, Tad (August 21, 2017). "Hampton Fancher on the Edge of Fame". The New Yorker. The New Yorker. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
- Epstein, Sonia (September 29, 2017). "Interview with Writer Hampton Fancher of Blade Runner". Sloan Science & Film.
- TURAN, KENNETH (September 13, 1992). "Blade Runner 2 : The Screenwriter Wrote Eight Drafts--and Then Was Replaced. On His First Day, The Director Turned The Set Upside Down. Harrison Ford Was Never So Miserable. Years Later, Someone Stumbled Over The Long-lost Original. Nothing About This Cult Classic Was Ever Simple". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
- Schulman, Michael (September 14, 2017). "The Battle for Blade Runner". Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
- Maslin, Janet (June 25, 1982). "Futuristic 'Blade Runner'" – via NYTimes.com.
- Kirschbaum, Susan M. (August 22, 1999). "A NIGHT OUT: With Wes Anderson; Dissecting Films And Serial Killers" – via NYTimes.com.
- "The Wall Will Tell You by Hampton Fancher: 9781612197616 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com.
External links
- Hampton Fancher on IMDb
- Salon.com – The flamenco man: Hampton Fancher
- "Interview with Hampton Fancher".
- "Hampton as guest star on Adam 12".