music.wikisort.org - Composer

John S. Harrison Jr. (born 1948) is an American filmmaker, musician, and composer[1] best known for his collaborations with director George A. Romero and for writing-directing the miniseries adaptation of Dune.

John Harrison
Born	1948 (72-73 years) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Alma mater	Emerson College
Occupation	Director, writer, composer, producer

Early life and career

Harrison was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Emerson College in Boston with a BS[2] in Theater Arts and is an MFA graduate of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama.[2] For several years after that, he performed on the road with his band Homebrew before moving back to Pittsburgh to take a master's degree in film and television from Carnegie Mellon University. At the same time, he joined blues guitarist Roy Buchanan, with whom he toured across the US and internationally for four years. He was also featured on several of Buchanan's albums, including That's What I'm Here For (1974), Live Stock (1975), and A Street Called Straight (1976).

In 1973, Harrison and his friends, Dusty Nelson and Pasquale Buba, formed a film production company eventually named The Image Works to produce commercials and industrials in the Pittsburgh area. This partnership eventually led to the production of the film Effects (1980), which Harrison produced and performed in[3] as the character Lacey Bickle.[4] In 1974, Harrison began a long collaboration and friendship with filmmaker George A. Romero. Harrison performed as Sir Pelinore in Romero's Knightriders, then became his 1st Assistant Director for both Romero films Creepshow (1982) and Day of the Dead (1985).

Harrison also composed the scores for Creepshow and Day of the Dead (1985).[5] He also played the "Screwdriver Zombie" in Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead (1978). The music that was composed for the score of Creepshow was also featured in the fake trailer for Thanksgiving in the film Grindhouse (2007), and the South Park episode "Tegridy Farms Halloween Special" (2019). Music from Harrison's Day of the Dead score was also featured in the premiere Stranger Things Season 3, "Suzie, Do You Copy" (2019).

After Creepshow, Harrison moved to Los Angeles to continue his writing and directing career. He wrote, directed and composed the music for multiple episodes of the Tales from the Darkside TV show. He was then tapped by producer Richard P. Rubinstein to direct Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990) for Paramount,[6] which won the Gran Prix du Festival at Avoriaz, France (1991).[2] Harrison's collaboration with Rubinstein culminated in the Emmy-winning TV miniseries, Frank Herbert's Dune (2000), which Harrison wrote and directed,[1] and Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (2003), which Harrison wrote and executive produced.

In 2001, Harrison receives a co-song writing credit, for the Gorillaz's track "M1 A1", from the album Gorillaz, which samples music (along with dialogue), from the film Day of the Dead. Gorillaz used samples from the same film for another song, "Hip Albatross", a B-side on the international hit "19-2000".

In 2006, Harrison reunited with mentor Romero to co-produce Romero's film Diary of the Dead (2007).[7] His action suspense thriller Blank Slate for producer Dean Devlin, which Harrison wrote and directed, aired as a twenty episode mini-series on TNT in the fall of 2008. In 2009, Harrison completed his adaptation of acclaimed horror novelist Clive Barker's Book of Blood, which Harrison co-wrote and directed.

His paranormal thriller miniseries Residue (2015), which he created and wrote, was released on Netflix in April 2015.[8]

Harrison has written and directed episodes of Creepshow on Shudder.[6]

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Composer	Notes
1982	Creepshow				Yes	Also first assistant director
1985	Day of the Dead				Yes	Also first assistant director
1987	Night Rose: Akhbar’s Daughter	Yes	Yes		Yes	Made-for-TV
1988	Scary Tales: Night Elevator	Yes	Yes		Yes	Made-for-TV
1990	Tales from the Darkside: The Movie	Yes			Yes	Composed segment "Lover's Vow"
1990	Memories of Murder		Yes			Made-for-TV
1995	Donor Unknown	Yes	Yes			Made-for-TV
1996	The Assassination File	Yes				Made-for-TV
2000	Dinosaur		Yes
2005	Supernova	Yes				Made-for-TV
2005	Painkiller Jane		Yes	Executive		Made-for-TV
2005	Effects			Executive	Yes	Made-for-DVD (filmed in 1978)
2005	After Effects: Memories of Pittsburgh Filmmaking			Yes		Made-for-DVD documentary
2007	Diary of the Dead			Executive
2008	Blank Slate	Yes	Yes			Made-for-TV
2009	Book of Blood	Yes	Yes
2015	Residue		Yes	Executive
2021	Dune			Executive

Acting credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	Dawn of the Dead	Screwdriver Zombie	Uncredited
1981	Knightriders	Pellinore
1988	Jack's Back	Chooch
2005	Effects	Lacey Bickel	Direct-to-video film (filmed in 1978)
2008	Blank Slate	Thomas Hale	Television film

Television series

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Composer	Notes
1984-1987	Tales from the Darkside	Yes	Yes		Yes	Directed 8 episodes / written 5 episodes / composer in 4 episodes
1988	Monsters		Yes			Episode "The Legacy"
1991-1996	Tales from the Crypt	Yes	Yes			Directed 2 episodes / Written 3 episodes
1992	Nightmare Cafe	Yes				Episode "The Heart of the Mystery"
1995	Earth 2	Yes	Yes			Directed 3 episodes / written episode "Survival of the Fittest"
1996	Profiler	Yes				Episode "I'll Be Watching You"
1996	Kindred: The Embraced	Yes				Episode "Nightstalker"
2000	Frank Herbert's Dune	Yes	Yes			Television minseries (3 episodes)
2003	Frank Herbert's Children of Dune		Yes	Co-Producer		Television minseries (3 episodes)
2009	Mental	Yes				Episode "Bad Moon Rising"
2010-2012	Leverage	Yes				5 episodes
2015	The Librarians	Yes				Episode "And the Heart of Darkness"
2017-2018	Superstition	Yes				2 episodes
2019-2021	Creepshow	Yes	Yes			Directing 4 segments (written segment "Lydia Layne's Better Half")

Soundtracks

• Effects – LaLa Land Records (LLLCD1040), Los Angeles
• Creepshow – LaLa Land Records (LLLCD1007), Los Angeles
• Day of the Dead – Taurus Entertainment/Numenorean Music, Los Angeles
• Tales from the Darkside: The Movie – GNP Crescendo (GNPD 8021), Los Angeles
• Creepshow – Waxwork Records LP, New Orleans
• Day of the Dead – Waxwork Records LP, New Orleans
• Tales from the Darkside: The Movie – Waxwork Records LP, New Orleans

Books

• Carson, Phil. Roy Buchanan, American Axe (San Francisco: Backbeat Books 2001)
• Larson, Randall D. Musique Fantastique (London: The Scarecrow Press 1985)
• Gagne, Paul R. The Zombies That Ate Pittsburgh: the Films of George A. Romero (New York: Dodd, Mead 1987)
• Newman, Kim. Nightmare Movies: A Critical History of the Horror Film 1968–1988 (1988)
• Harrison, John. Destiny Gardens, A Novel (Los Angeles: House Bean Boy 2013)
• Fischera, J. Blake. Scored to Death 2; More Conversations With Some of Horror's Greatest Composers (Los Angeles: Silman-James Press 2020)

References

External links

• Official website
• John Harrison at IMDb
• John Harrison discography at Discogs

На других языках

---

[de] John Harrison (Filmemacher)

John S. Harrison (* 1948) ist ein US-amerikanischer Regisseur, Filmproduzent, Drehbuchautor und Komponist.

---

- [en] John Harrison (director)

---

---