Hampton Fancher Biography

Hampton Lansden Fancher (born July 18, 1938) is an American actor who became a producer and screenwriter in the late 1970s.

Life and career

Fancher was born to a Mexican/Danish mother and an American father, a physician, in East Los Angeles, California, USA. At 15, he ran away to Spain to become a flamenco dancer and renamed himself Mario Montejo. He was married briefly to Sue Lyon of Lolita fame. Fancher lives in New York City.

In 1959, Fancher appeared in the episode "Misfits" of the ABC western television series, The Rebel. In the story line, Fancher using the name "Bull" with Malcolm Cassell as Billy the Kid and Hal Stalmaster as "Skinny" plot to rob a bank so that they can live thereafter without working. The "Misfits" enlist the help of The Rebel (Nick Adams) in carrying out their doomed scheme.

Fancher then played Deputy Lon Gillis in seven episodes of the ABC western, Black Saddle, with Peter Breck. He guest starred on other westerns, Have Gun, Will Travel, Tate, Stagecoach West, Cheyenne (1961 episode "Incident at Dawson Flats"), Outlaws, Maverick, and Lawman, and Temple Houston. He was cast as Larry Wilson in the 1963 episode "Little Richard" of the CBS anthology series, GE True, hosted by Jack Webb. In 1965, he played the role of Hamp Fisher, a close resemblance of his own name, in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Silent Six."

Prior to writing the first screenplay of the science fiction film Blade Runner, Fancher appeared in two Troy Donahue films: 1961's "Parrish" and 1962's "Rome Adventure". After convincing Philip K. Dick to option Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Fancher wrote a screenplay and got the support of producer Michael Deeley. This made Fancher the executive producer, which led to disagreements with the director Ridley Scott and David Peoples being brought in to continue reworking the script.

Fancher wrote two films afterward, The Mighty Quinn (1989) starring Denzel Washington and The Minus Man (1999), which he also directed, starring Owen Wilson.

In the early '80s, Fancher wrote and lived outside of Los Angeles in Topanga Canyon. Fancher appeared in a cameo role in the independent film Tonight at Noon by Michael Almereyda, which stars Rutger Hauer.

Fancher provided the voiceover narration for the DVD extras in The Criterion Collection edition of famous films noir of Ernest Hemingway's short story The Killers, which included the 1946, 1956 and 1964 versions.

Filmography

• Blade Runner (with David Webb Peoples) (1982)
• The Mighty Quinn (1989)
• The Minus Man (1999) (Director/Writer)