Matt Cimber

Writer, director and producer Matt Cimber was born as Matteo Ottaviano in 1936 and began his career in the early 60s directing off-Broadway plays including works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tennessee Williams and the US premieres of the Jean Cocteau trilogy. During his theater years, Cimber rewrote Burning Bright with John Steinbeck which introduced Sandy Dennis who went on to win an Academy Award for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) . Cimber then directed the Broadway revival of Bus Stop, where he met future wife Jayne Mansfield. Matt made his cinematic directorial debut with the offbeat Single Room Furnished (1966), which was also Mansfield's last movie. He followed this movie with the film The Sexually Liberated Female (1970) which was based on a best-selling book The Sensuous Female by J. As the screenwriter / director of this film, Cimber made a satire which required the title be changed for release because the publisher rescinded the rights. Cimber did three immensely enjoyable blaxploitation pictures in the mid 70s: The Black 6 (1973), Lady Cocoa (1975) and the terrifically trashy The Candy Tangerine Man (1975) which was also Samuel L. Jackson 's favorite film. Matt made a rare foray into the horror genre with the disturbing psychological shocker The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976). His next work was based on a Mario Puzo story, a World War II drama A Time to Die (1982) starring Rex Harrison. Later that year Matt teamed up with Pia Zadora for two films: the underr…