Paul Morrissey was a filmmaker best known for his collaborations with artist Andy Warhol and for briefly managing the Velvet Underground.
- Died: October 28, 2024 (Who else died on October 28?)
- Details of death: Died in New York City of pneumonia at the age of 86.
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Paul Morrissey’s legacy
Manhattan native Morrissey did not make mainstream films. After a brief time in the U.S. Army, he plunged himself into the art scene of New York’s East Village in the early 1960s, opening a small cinematheque, where director Brian De Palma’s earliest work screened, and starting to make his own avant-garde short films. Morrissey’s 1965 meeting with Andy Warhol sparked a series of collaborations between the pair, including the films “Space” (1965), “The Velvet Underground and Nico: A Symphony of Sound” (1966), “Chelsea Girls” (1966), “Imitation of Christ” (1967), “Lonesome Cowboys” (1968) and others.
He also briefly managed the legendary Velvet Underground during this time, helping launch their cult classic debut LP, “The Velvet Underground & Nico.”
Morrissey’s feature-length solo directorial debut came in 1968 with “Flesh,” a provocative movie about a male prostitute hustling in NYC. In the 1970s, he made two cult-favorite horror films in Italy, “Flesh for Frankenstein” (1973) and “Blood for Dracula” (1974), then in the ‘80s collaborated with writer Alan Bowne for a trilogy of films exploring the alleged moral decay of New York City during that era, “Forty Deuce” (1982), “Mixed Blood” (1985), and “Spike of Bensonhurst” (1988).
He made few films after “Spike of Bensonhurst,” his last two a 2005 documentary about a fashion model (“Veruschka: A Life for the Camera”) and a little-seen feature, 2010’s “News from Nowhere.”
Tributes to Paul Morrissey
Full obituary: The New York Times
