Paul Morrissey obit

Paul Morrissey, Cult Director and Andy Warhol Collaborator, Dies at 86

The auteur's film credits include 'Andy Warhol's Frankenstein,' ‘Mixed Blood,’ ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ and ‘News From Nowhere.’ 

He was not on the list.

Paul Morrissey, a cult film director and early Andy Warhol collaborator, died Monday. He was 86.

Morrissey’s archivist Michael Chaiken told The Hollywood Reporter the filmmaker died at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City after a bout with pneumonia.

His most celebrated films as an auteur included Flesh, Trash, Heat, Flesh for Frankenstein and the classic B-picture Blood for Dracula, which starred Joe Dallesandro.

Morrissey’s films also included classics like Women in Revolt and the 1980s New York City trilogy Forty Deuce, Mixed Blood and Spike of Bensonhurst. But it’s Morrissey’s early association with pop artist Andy Warhol that helped establish him as a director and kept his cult status alive throughout his career.

The two artists first met in 1965, and Morrissey signed on to run the publicity and filmmaking for Warhol at The Factory under a contract through 1973. Early cinematic collaborations full of colorful characters like drug addicts and street hustlers include in 1965 Space and My Hustler, a year later with The Velvet Underground and Nico: A Symphony of Sound and San Diego Surf and Lonesome Cowboys in 1968.

Morrissey in recent years became defensive over Warhol having taken too much credit for their film collaborations at The Factory.

“Don’t say ‘Warhol films’ when you talk about my films! Are you so stupid, you talk to people like that? I have to live through this for fifty years. Everything I did, it’s Warhol this, or he did them with me. Forget it. He was incompetent, anorexic, illiterate, autistic, Asperger’s — he never did a thing in his entire life. He sort of walked through it as a zombie, and that paid off in the long run. But I just cannot take that shitty reference. What were you gonna say, if you can get past that?” Morrissey told Sam Weinberg during an interview in the Bright Lights Film Journal in February 2020.

Typical of the movie posters for their joint films was a top billing for Warhol — as in “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein” or “Andy Warhol’s Dracula,” followed with “A Film by Paul Morrissey” just below — to catch the eye of cinema-goers.

Morrissey was more generous in a March 1975 interview in Oui with Jonathan Rosenbaum, where he allowed that Warhol had at least operated the camera at times, while he did the rest of the logistics and creative decisions. “I just understood what Andy was doing and helped him do it. Andy usually operated the camera. I always did the lights, organized the film, got the actors together, told them what to do. We never ever told actors just to be themselves. That’s a lot of crap,” Morrissey insisted. 

Among the other contributions Morrissey made to Warhol’s cult status was helping discover and manage The Velvet Underground and co-founding Interview magazine.

Born in New York City on Feb. 23, 1938, Morrissey graduated from the Fordham Preparatory School in 1955 and four years later from Fordham University.

After a stint in the U.S. military, he moved to the East Village in late 1960 and opened the Exit Gallery. There he screened underground films like Brian De Palma’s debut short, Icarus, and made his own first films.

In 1975, after his collaboration with Warhol had run its course, Morrissey lived for a short time in Los Angeles and set about to finance and make his own films. Among those was a studio film, The Hound of the Baskervilles, a Sherlock Holmes parody that starred Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore, and his last film, News From Nowhere, in 2010.

Director

Joe Dallesandro and Jane Forth in Trash (1970)

News from Nowhere

6.3

Director

2010

 

Veruschka - Die Inszenierung (m)eines Körpers (2005)

Veruschka - Die Inszenierung (m)eines Körpers

6.6

Director

2005

 

Sasha Mitchell in Spike of Bensonhurst (1988)

Spike of Bensonhurst

6.0

Director

1988

 

Jane Birkin, Dietmar Prinz, and Wolfgang Reichmann in Beethoven's Nephew (1985)

Beethoven's Nephew

5.8

Director

1985

 

The Armchair Hacker

6.9

Director

1985

 

Mixed Blood (1984)

Mixed Blood

5.9

Director

1984

 

Forty Deuce (1982)

Forty Deuce

5.4

Director

1982

 

Madame Wang's (1981)

Madame Wang's

6.0

Director

1981

 

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)

The Hound of the Baskervilles

4.5

Director

1978

 

Udo Kier in Blood for Dracula (1974)

Blood for Dracula

6.1

Director

1974

 

Dalila Di Lazzaro in Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)

Flesh for Frankenstein

5.8

Director

1973

 

Joe Dallesandro and Sylvia Miles in Heat (1972)

Heat

6.1

Director

1972

 

Max Delys, Jane Forth, Donna Jordan, and Michael Sklar in L'Amour (1972)

L'Amour

5.7

Director

1972

 

Women in Revolt (1971)

Women in Revolt

5.7

Director

1971

 

I Miss Sonia Henie (1971)

I Miss Sonia Henie

5.5

Short

Director

1971

 

Joe Dallesandro in Trash (1970)

Trash

6.1

Director

1970

 

San Diego Surf (1968)

San Diego Surf

6.6

Director

1968

 

Lonesome Cowboys (1968)

Lonesome Cowboys

5.2

Director (uncredited)

1968

 

Joe Dallesandro in Flesh (1968)

Flesh

5.7

Director

1968

 

Joe Dallesandro in The Loves of Ondine (1968)

The Loves of Ondine

5.9

Director

1968

 

I a Man (1967)

I a Man

5.8

Director

1967

 

Chelsea Girls (1966)

Chelsea Girls

5.7

Director

1966

 

Like Sleep (1965)

Like Sleep

5.5

Short

Director

1965

 

All Aboard the Dreamland Choo-Choo

5.8

Short

Director

1964

 

About Face

5.1

Short

Director

1964

 

Writer

Joe Dallesandro and Jane Forth in Trash (1970)

News from Nowhere

6.3

writer

2010

 

Veruschka - Die Inszenierung (m)eines Körpers (2005)

Veruschka - Die Inszenierung (m)eines Körpers

6.6

Writer

2005

 

Sasha Mitchell in Spike of Bensonhurst (1988)

Spike of Bensonhurst

6.0

story and screenplay

1988

 

Jane Birkin, Dietmar Prinz, and Wolfgang Reichmann in Beethoven's Nephew (1985)

Beethoven's Nephew

5.8

Writer

1985

 

Mixed Blood (1984)

Mixed Blood

5.9

written by

1984

 

Madame Wang's (1981)

Madame Wang's

6.0

writer

1981

 

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)

The Hound of the Baskervilles

4.5

screenplay

1978

 

Udo Kier in Blood for Dracula (1974)

Blood for Dracula

6.1

written by

1974

 

Dalila Di Lazzaro in Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)

Flesh for Frankenstein

5.8

writer

1973

 

Joe Dallesandro and Sylvia Miles in Heat (1972)

Heat

6.1

story

1972

 

Max Delys, Jane Forth, Donna Jordan, and Michael Sklar in L'Amour (1972)

L'Amour

5.7

writer

1972

 

Women in Revolt (1971)

Women in Revolt

5.7

Writer

1971

 

Joe Dallesandro in Trash (1970)

Trash

6.1

Writer

1970

 

Lonesome Cowboys (1968)

Lonesome Cowboys

5.2

writer

1968

 

Joe Dallesandro in Flesh (1968)

Flesh

5.7

writer

1968

 

Like Sleep (1965)

Like Sleep

5.5

Short

Writer

1965

 

All Aboard the Dreamland Choo-Choo

5.8

Short

Writer

1964

 

About Face

5.1

Short

Writer

1964

 

Cinematographer

Joe Dallesandro and Sylvia Miles in Heat (1972)

Heat

6.1

Cinematographer

1972

 

Joe Dallesandro in Trash (1970)

Trash

6.1

Cinematographer

1970

 

Lonesome Cowboys (1968)

Lonesome Cowboys

5.2

Cinematographer

1968

 

Joe Dallesandro in Flesh (1968)

Flesh

5.7

Cinematographer

1968

 

The Andy Warhol Story

6.6

Short

Cinematographer

1967

 

Bike Boy (1967)

Bike Boy

6.7

Cinematographer

1967

 

Screen Test #4

5.9

Short

Cinematographer

1966

 

Screen Test #3

5.8

Short

Cinematographer

1966

 

John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Nico, and Lou Reed in The Velvet Underground and Nico (1966)

The Velvet Underground and Nico

6.6

Cinematographer

1966

 

Screen Test #2

6.4

Short

Cinematographer

1965

 

Screen Test #1

5.9

Short

Cinematographer

1965