Jesús Franco
(* 1930, † 2013), equally well known as Jess Franco and working under a multitude of pseudonyms, directed an astonishing 200 films in his sixty-year career, many of which exist in several versions that cater to different audiences. He is famous for his brand of psychedelic gothic horror, first exhibited in The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962), and worked in every genre between exploitation, hardcore porn, and Shakespeare (!). In his most productive years, he often built his low-budget films around casts that included Christopher Lee, Herbert Lom, Klaus Kinski, and starlets of the time, adding a pop eroticism to his genre mix that can be seen and heard in his classic Vampyros Lesbos. Another film in this vein is Female Vampire (1975), starring his longtime muse and later wife, Lina Romay. A restless worker until his final days, he also acted in most of his movies and worked as a composer, writer, cinematographer, and editor.