Herschell Gordon Lewis

Herschell Gordon Lewis transformed two industries Herschell Gordon Lewis passed away. He was 90 years old. Mr. Lewis, along with his partner David Friedman, invented the splatter movie genre, inspiring a generation of movie-makers to show violence on screen that was far more graphic than had been considered acceptable before his signature titles, Blood Feast and 2000 Maniacs appeared in theaters in the 1960s. Known to movie fans as the "Godfather of Gore," Mr. Lewis never took his movie making seriously. He viewed it as a business, not as art, and was an irreverent commentator about his contributions. Interviewed on Chicago radio he was asked what sort of audience his movies attracted. "We don't really know," he answered. "Nobody has figured out a way to survey IQs that low." Mr. Lewis was also well-known in the field of direct marketing, where he published more than thirty books and hundreds of articles on writing persuasive copy, or, as he preferred to call it, "force communication." His signature was his insistence on testing - on relying on data rather than personal opinion to decide what works and what doesn't. As a sign of the esteem in which he is held in this industry, in 2004 he was inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame. Less well known was his love of traveling. From photo safaris in Africa and India to visiting lemurs in Madagascar to admiring the ruins of Persepolis in Iran to scuba diving in the Red Sea, Mr. Lewis and his wife, Margo lived for the next adventure ¿ and even more, for the joy of story-telling about it afterward. Mr. Lewis is survived by his beloved wife, Margo, his son, Robert (Sharon Link), grandchildren (Kimberly and Erin Lewis), five children to whom he was second father - Carol Nelson (Patrick McEwan), Peggy Nelson, Paula Nelson, Sandy Nelson (Roland Keller), and John Easton, along with tens of thousands of loyal copywriters and splatter movie fans from around the world. The funeral will be private and limited to his immediate family.