Matt Cimber

Writer director and producer Matt Cimber was born as Matteo Ottaviano in 1936 and began his career in the early 60s directing offBroadway plays including works by F Scott Fitzgerald Tennessee Williams and the US premieres of the Jean Cocteau trilogy During his theater years Cimber rewrote Burning Bright with John Steinbeck which introduced Sandy Dennis who went on to win an Academy Award for Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf 1966 Cimber then directed the Broadway revival of Bus Stop where he met future wife Jayne Mansfield Matt made his cinematic directorial debut with the offbeat Single Room Furnished 1966 which was also Mansfields last movie He followed this movie with the film The Sexually Liberated Female 1970 which was based on a bestselling book The Sensuous Female by J As the screenwriter director of this film Cimber made a satire which required the title be changed for release because the publisher rescinded the rights Cimber did three immensely enjoyable blaxploitation pictures in the mid 70s The Black 6 1973 Lady Cocoa 1975 and the terrifically trashy The Candy Tangerine Man 1975 which was also Samuel L Jackson s favorite film Matt made a rare foray into the horror genre with the disturbing psychological shocker The Witch Who Came from the Sea 1976 His next work was based on a Mario Puzo story a World War II drama A Time to Die 1982 starring Rex Harrison Later that year Matt teamed up with Pia Zadora for two films the underrated Butterfly 1981 and the fun FakeOut 1982 Butterfly 1981 was the master filmmaker Orson Welles last film for which he received one of the films three Golden Globe nominations The following year Matt joined forces with actress Laurene Landon for the delightful actionadventure romps Hundra 1983 and Yellow Hair and the Pecos Kid 1984 Quentin Tarantino is quoted as saying Matt Cimber films were among his favorite In the late 80s Cimber created and directed the successful TV series GLOW Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling 1986 The show was lasted for four seasons on 103 stations in the US More recent years of Cimbers work were dedicated to a documentary genre He wrote and directed An American Icon CocaCola the Early Years 1997 and The History of United Nations 1996 He created and wrote the eightminute intro for visitors to the United Nations for which he received a special commendation from the UN After a twenty years absence in motion picture production Matt Cimber made a comeback with the independent drama Miriam 2006