Filmography

Television

Theatre

BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1944, Michael Armstrong trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and, following a brief period as an actor, was writing and directing films at the age of 22 with the award-winning short The Image starring David Bowie and Michael Byrne. The following year he became the then youngest ever writer/director of international feature films with The Haunted House Of Horror starring Frankie Avalon, Jill Haworth and Dennis Price. He followed it with the notorious Mark Of The Devil, starring Herbert Lom and Udo Kier and which smashed box office records all over Europe and in America and is now considered one of the most popular and infamous cult films ever made.

In all, he has written and/or directed and produced seventeen films internationally including the controversial real-life murder case The Black Panther, the multi-award winning House Of The Long Shadows, the only film to star Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and John Carradine on screen together, the classic satire Eskimo Nell starring Armstrong, himself alongside Roy Kinnear and a host of other comedy stars, and the hugely successful The Adventures Of... series of comedies.

His television writing credits include The Professionals, Shoestring and Return Of The Saint while his many theatre credits both in the UK and America include his critically acclaimed production of Miss Julie in 2000 and a specially commissioned work for actors and orchestra in 1980 The Enchanted Orchestra, performed at a Royal Charity Performance at the Royal Albert Hall and featuring the London Symphony Orchestra with Loris Tjeknavorian conducting and an all-star cast headed by the late Sir John Mills and fifteen major stars including the legendary Max Wall. While in America, he was also commissioned to write a new musical comedy My Jewish Vampire, which premiered in 1986 to great success and is now scheduled for a British premiere with the LRC.

He has, during a career spanning over 45 years, been instrumental in launching or assisting the careers of some of our biggest names on stage and screen today, has received writing awards internationally including three for published short stories, written and produced children’s records, taught and directed in most of our leading drama schools before creating his own structured course (now adopted by LRC as the basis of its craft training), worked as a film critic and journalist for the prestigious Films & Filming in the 60’s and 70’s and worked variously in areas of film distribution, publicity, packaging, casting, and script consultancy to most of the major film companies both here and Hollywood.

Copyright © 2004-2012 Michael Armstrong