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David Hess

David Hess

Highest Rated: 75% American Grindhouse (2010)

Lowest Rated: 20% Avalanche Express (1979)

Birthday: Sep 19, 1936

Birthplace: New York, New York, USA

David Hess is most known for playing psychotic killers in graphic horror movies. He is less known for his career as a songwriter, penning tunes for such country and pop stars as Sal Mineo, Pat Boone, and Conway Twitty. Hess' most infamous acting role in the horror genre, by far, was Krug Stillo, the merciless rapist-killer in Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left"; it remains one of cinema's most brutal slasher movies, despite the fact that it was adapted from Ingmar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring" and significantly edited to make it less "hardcore." Hess also wrote and performed on the film's soundtrack, which was employed as a stark contrast to the onscreen action: comic, upbeat musical themes in the midst of rape, mutilation, and murder. He collaborated with the Italian director of "Cannibal Holocaust" fame, Ruggero Deodato, two times, most notably in "House on the Edge of the Park," playing a Krug Stillo-like maniac and committing sexual violence wherever he goes. A few years later, Hess worked again with Wes Craven, for the adaptation "Swamp Thing," once again playing the villain, Ferret. For Eli Roth's 2002 gore-ridden horror film "Cabin Fever," Hess both wrote and performed several songs, and he played a slasher film director looking for inspiration in the gory meta-horror "Smash Cut" (2009). Hess died of a heart attack in 2011, aged 75.

Highest rated movies

75% 71% American Grindhouse
65% 50% Last House on the Left
60% 40% Swamp Thing
43% 38% House on the Edge of the Park
20% 13% Avalanche Express

Filmography

Movies

Credit
No Score Yet No Score Yet Deodato Holocaust Alex / Robert Ritchie (Character) - 2019
75% 71% American Grindhouse Unknown (Character) $4.6K 2010
No Score Yet 20% Smash Cut Able Whitman (Character) - 2009
No Score Yet No Score Yet Go Together Aldo Modisco (Character) - 2007
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Absence of Light Whiplash (Character) - 2006
No Score Yet 17% Zodiac Killer Mel Navokov (Character) - 2005
No Score Yet No Score Yet Nutcracker John Gard/Clyde Fairfax (Character) - 2001
No Score Yet No Score Yet Who Is the Monster ... You or Me? Producer - 1995
No Score Yet No Score Yet Jonathan of the Bears Maddock (Character) - 1993
No Score Yet No Score Yet Buck at the Edge of Heaven Unknown (Character) - 1991
No Score Yet 26% Let's Get Harry Mercenary (Character) $141.0K 1986
No Score Yet No Score Yet Body Count Robert Ritchie (Character) - 1986
60% 40% Swamp Thing Ferret (Character) - 1982
43% 38% House on the Edge of the Park Alex (Character) - 1980
No Score Yet 21% To All a Good Night Director - 1980
20% 13% Avalanche Express Geiger (Character) - 1979
No Score Yet 64% Hitch-Hike Adam Konitz (Character) - 1977
No Score Yet 73% Autostop rosso sangue (Hitch Hike) Unknown (Character) - 1977
No Score Yet 30% The Swiss Conspiracy Sando (Character) - 1976
No Score Yet No Score Yet Montana Trap Sleeve (Character) - 1976
65% 50% Last House on the Left Krug Stillo (Character),
Original Music
- 1972

TV

Credit
93% 91% The Good Wife Jonathan Dobbs (Guest Star) 2010
No Score Yet 70% The A-Team Ben Al Fradeen (Guest Star) 1986
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Fall Guy Unknown (Guest Star) 1985