Wes Bishop(1932-1993)
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Writer/actor/producer Wes Bishop frequently collaborated with
exploitation filmmaker Lee Frost on a bunch of
enjoyably down-'n'-dirty drive-in features made throughout the 1960s
and 1970s. Bishop was born as Charles Pelletieri on September 12, 1932,
in Nashville, Tennessee. He served a hitch in the US army as a
paratrooper and intelligence officer in the Korean War. He and Frost
first crossed paths in the early 1960s on the tongue-in-cheek softcore
horror comedy
House on Bare Mountain (1962).
Their subsequent cinematic ventures include the trailblazing
Nazisploitation outing
Love Camp 7 (1969), the gritty
Chain Gang Women (1971), the
passable biker opus
Chrome and Hot Leather (1971),
the hilariously campy
The Thing with Two Heads (1972),
the immensely fun Policewomen (1974),
the gnarly blaxploitation winner
The Black Gestapo (1975) and
the rowdy redneck romp
Dixie Dynamite (1976). In
addition, Frost often had sizable supporting roles in their movies;
he's especially memorable as trouble-making convict Coleman in "Chain
Gang Women" and sleazy mobster Ernest in "The Black Gestapo." In
addition, Frost and Bishop wrote the witty and inspired script for
Jack Starrett's terrific
Satan-worship/car-chase horror/action treat
Race with the Devil (1975);
Bishop also produced the picture and appears in a minor part as a
small-town deputy.
Bishop did guest spots on such TV series as Perry Mason (1957), Combat! (1962), Bonanza (1959) and The High Chaparral (1967). Wes Bishop died at age 60 from a liver ailment on June 25, 1993.
Bishop did guest spots on such TV series as Perry Mason (1957), Combat! (1962), Bonanza (1959) and The High Chaparral (1967). Wes Bishop died at age 60 from a liver ailment on June 25, 1993.
