Jesús Franco

Jesús "Jess" Franco was a Spanish film director, writer, cinematographer and actor. His career took off in 1961 with his cult classic The Awful Dr. Orloff, which received wide distribution in the United States and England. Though he had some American box office success with Necronomicon, his first women-in-prison film Ninety-Nine Women, and his two Christopher Lee films, The Bloody Judge and Count Dracula, he never achieved wide commercial success. Franco moved from Spain to France in 1970 so that he could make more violent and sexual films, and it was at this point that his career began to go downhill commercially, as he turned to low-budget filmmaking with a heavier accent on adult-oriented films. Although he produced a few well-received, low budget horror films in the early 70's, many people in the industry considered him a porn director due to the huge number of X-rated adult films he began churning out. Franco returned to low-budget horror in a brief comeback period from 1980-1983, but after 1983, his career took a second downturn. With the exception of Faceless and Killer Barbies, his films after 1984 are quite disliked and obscure due to their incredibly low budgets. Franco has nevertheless retained a large cult following through the years with his sexually-charged horror films, some of which are regarded as masterpieces by his avid followers.

Known For: Directing

Born: Madrid, Spain, 1930-05-12

Died: 2013-04-02

Film

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1956	Around the World in Eighty Days	Extra (uncredited)	66
2	1958	Anna Said Yes	Pianista (uncredited)	53
3	1962	The Awful Dr. Orlof	Pianist (uncredited)	59
4	1964	Dr. Orloff's Monster	Piano Player	46
5	1964	Death Whistles the Blues	Saxofonista en Club de Nueva Orleans (uncredited)	47
6	1964	Strange Voyage	Don Venancio	72
7	1966	Residence for Spies	Casino Piano Player (uncredited)	45
8	1966	Attack of the Robots	Piano Player	51
9	1966	Attack of the Robots	Pianist (uncredited)	51
10	1966	The Diabolical Dr. Z	Inspector Tanner	58
11	1967	Lucky, the Inscrutable	Ciego / Zoltan / Guitarrista	44
12	1968	Succubus	Writer	55
13	1968	The Blood of Fu Manchu		44
14	1969	99 Women	Official (uncredited)	53
15	1969	The Girl from Rio	Guitar Player	46
16	1969	Kiss Me Monster	Abilene's Contact Man	46
17	1969	Two Undercover Angels	Napoleon Bolivard	50
18	1969	Marquis de Sade: Justine		51
19	1969	The Castle of Fu Manchu	Insp. Ahmet	36
20	1969	Venus in Furs	Jazz Musician (uncredited)	53
21	1969	Your Caresses		46
22	1970	Eugenie	Man in Red Ritual Scene (uncredited)	46
23	1970	Count Dracula	Van Helsing's servant (uncredited)	58
24	1971	The Devil Came from Akasava	Tino Celli	47
25	1971	Vampyros Lesbos	Memmet	57
26	1971	X312 - Flight to Hell	Man at John Somers'	42
27	1971	She Killed in Ecstasy	Dr. Donen	54
28	1972	Vampir Cuadecuc	Self	60
29	1972	The Corpse Packs His Bags	Gonzales	51
30	1972	Robinson and His Tempestuous Slaves	Director	40
31	1972	Daughter of Dracula	Cyril Jefferson	42
32	1972	The Vengeance of Dr. Mabuse	Crosby / Drunk Man in Nightclub	57
33	1973	The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff	Lord Comfort (uncredited)	46
34	1973	El misterio del castillo rojo		20
35	1973	Eugenie de Sade	Attila Tanner	57
36	1973	Female Vampire	Dr. Roberts	44
37	1973	The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein	Morpho	53
38	1973	Sinner: The Secret Diary of a Nymphomaniac	Inspecteur Hernandez	52
39	1973	A Virgin Among the Living Dead	Basilio	49
40	1973	Dolls for Sale		44
41	1974	Night of the Skull	Andy	62
42	1974	Celestine	Sleeping Man	57
43	1975	Women Behind Bars	Bill	45
44	1975	The Hot Nights of Linda	Dr. Roberts (as Jess Franck)	31
45	1975	Demoniac		0
46	1975	Exorcism	Mathis Vogel, aka Laforgue	46
47	1975	Downtown	Al Pereira	58
48	1976	Midnight Party	Janos Radeck	52
49	1976	Barbed Wire Dolls	Maria's Father (uncredited)	47
50	1976	Ladies House of Pleasure		32
51	1976	Les emmerdeuses		35
52	1976	White Skin Black Thighs	Graf Anastasio	48
53	1976	Shining Sex	Dr. Seward	40
54	1977	Greta, the Mad Butcher	Dr. Milton Arcos (as Jess Franco)	47
55	1977	Kiss Me Killer	Marcel	43
56	1977	Slaves	Radeck's Assistant	51
57	1979	The Sadist of Notre Dame	Mathis Vogel	53
58	1979	Justine and the Whip	Strange Guy	49
59	1980	What a Honeymoon	Dying Man (uncredited)	57
60	1980	White Cannibal Queen	Mr. Martin	44
61	1981	Sex Is Crazy	Film Director	57
62	1981	Sadomania	Lucas	51
63	1981	Bloody Moon	Doctor (uncredited)	50
64	1981	Jailhouse Wardress	Uncle Jess	37
65	1983	Blood on My Shoes	Abductor	58
66	1983	The Blues of Pop Street	Sam Chesterfield	49
67	1983	En busca del dragón dorado	Blind Old Man	44
68	1983	Black Boots, Leather Whip	Matón en cementerio de coches (voice) (uncredited)	51
69	1983	The Night Of Open Sex	Count	40
70	1983	Macumba Sexual	Recepcionist	53
71	1984	Bahia Blanca	The Miseries (uncredited)	54
72	1984	Camino solitario	Doctor Callman	39
73	1984	Night Has a Thousand Desires	Psychiatrist (uncredited)	44
74	1984	The Sinister Doctor Orloff	Manolo	44
75	1984	Lilian, the Perverted Virgin	Bernardo	59
76	1984	A Crack for Two	Tom	0
77	1985	Judoka Shadow versus Doctor Wong	Dr. Wong	30
78	1986	Girl with the Red Lips	Professor Karame	0
79	1988	The Bizarre World of Jess Franco	Self	0
80	1988	Esa cosa con plumas		0
81	1988	Flesh Eating Mothers	Policeman	46
82	1989	Esmeralda Bay	Boat Captain	44
83	1992	El abuelo, la condesa y Escarlata la traviesa		60
84	1999	Vampire Blues	The Merchant	38
85	1999	Dr. Wong's Virtual Hell	Dr. James Wong	12
86	2000	Call Him Jess	Himself	70
87	2000	Orson Welles in the Land of Don Quixote	Self	55
88	2001	Journey into Perversion	Himself	0
89	2002	Antena Criminal: Making a Jess Franco Movie	Himself	78
90	2002	Perversion Stories	Self	0
91	2003	Red Venice	Jess Franco	47
92	2003	Death Karate in Torremolinos	Miyagi	53
93	2003	On the Threshold to Another World	Himself	0
94	2004	See you later Cowabunga: La maldición del cenachero diabólico!		0
95	2005	Jesús in Furs	Himself	60
96	2005	Jess' Women	self	0
97	2005	The Well		0
98	2005	Ban the Sadist Videos!	Self	69
99	2007	Bloody Jess	Self	0
100	2007	Angel of Death 2: The Prison Island Massacre	Pete	60
101	2007	Beloved Count	Self	0
102	2007	Jesús Franco, manera de vivir	Himself	60
103	2008	Martes de Carnaval		0
104	2008	Ellos robaron la picha de Hitler	Padre del Dr. Weissman	55
105	2009	Take-Away Spirit	J.W. Radek	0
106	2009	Coffins of Light	himself	0
107	2009	Idoru		50
108	2009	Por la gracia de Luis	Himself	50
109	2010	Macumba sexual: Voodoo Jess	Self	0
110	2012	Debris Documentar	Himself	52
111	2012	La cripta de las condenadas		31
112	2012	Tío Jess	Self	50
113	2013	Los profundos sueños de Jennifer	Voz	70
114	2013	Al Pereira vs. the Alligator Ladies	The Director	27
115	2013	The Rhythm of Jess	Self	55
116	2013	La última película de Jess Franco	Self	60
117	2013	Revenge of the Alligator Ladies	Himself	47
118	2014	Falks Frauen	(archive footage)	0
119	2014	Clawing! A Journey Through the Spanish Horror	Self (archive footage) (uncredited)	60
120	2014	Call Me Jess Redux	Himself	46
121	2014	Queridos monstruos	Self	55
122	2015	Soledad Miranda, Flower in the Desert	Himself (archive footage)	37
123	2017	Drácula Barcelona	Himself	58
124	2019	Wild Session	Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)	69
125	2021	Inferno Rosso: Joe D'Amato on the Road of Excess	Self (archive footage)	65
126	2024	Exorcismo: The Transgressive Legacy of Clasificada 'S'	Self - Archive footage	0

Television

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1999	Eurotika!	Self	80