Richard Compton was born on March 2, 1938, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He began his career in the early 1960s, creating government propaganda films for the United States Information Agency. His debut feature, "The French Way", unfortunately never received a release in America.
Compton's subsequent film, the 1970 biker flick "Angels Die Hard", marked the first release under Roger Corman's New World Pictures. He then directed the critically acclaimed, yet overlooked, exploitation film "Welcome Home Soldier Boys" (1971),which told the story of psycho Vietnam veterans.
His biggest hit came with the cult classic "Macon County Line" (1974),which unexpectedly achieved enormous box-office success. This led to a series of similar Southern-fried drive-in pictures, including "Jackson County Jail" (1976),"A Small Town in Texas" (1976),and "Nightmare in Badham County" (1976).
Compton's later work includes the semi-sequel "Return to Macon County" (1975),starring Nick Nolte and Don Johnson, as well as the sci-fi survivalist film "Ravagers" (1979). Although these films were less successful, his thriller "The Ransom" (1977) received solid reviews.
In the early 1980s, Compton shifted his focus to television, directing numerous made-for-TV movies and episodes of popular TV shows such as "Peacemakers", "JAG", "The Lone Gunmen", "Charmed", "Sliders", "Profiler", "Babylon 5", "L.A. Law", "The Commish", "Home Improvement", "Baywatch", "Miami Vice", "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "The Equalizer", "Hill Street Blues", "Hotel", and "T.J. Hooker".
Compton also acted in the 1960s and 1970s, with guest appearances on "Star Trek" and in the film "The Sadistic Hypnotist" (1969). He was married to actress Veronica Cartwright and passed away on August 11, 2007, at the age of 69.
