Pete Walker(I)

Writer, director, and producer Pete Walker was born on July 4, 1939 in Brighton, Sussex, England. The son of musical comedy performer Syd Walker, Pete began his show business career as a stand-up comic at a Soho strip club. Walker went on to play bit roles in a few films prior to starting his own production company. Pete initially made 8mm glamour shorts before graduating to full-length soft-core features in the late 1960's. However, it was in the 1970's that Walker made his strongest and most impressive mark with a series of gritty and hard-hitting horror movies that include the proto-slasher The Flesh and Blood Show (1972), the startling House of Whipcord (1974), the equally shocking Frightmare (1974), and the edgy The Confessional (1976). His horror films frequently centered on the abuse of authority and the ever broadening gap between the young generation and the previous older one who are attempting to maintain order in an increasingly permissive society. After directing the enjoyable all-star horror mystery thriller House of the Long Shadows (1983), Pete retired from filmmaking altogether and decided to pursue a career in property development instead.