Talented, prolific, and versatile writer/director Sergio Martino has made a vast array of often solid and enjoyable films in a diverse range of genres, including horror, comedy, Western, and science-fiction, spanning over 40 years of his illustrious career.
Born on July 19, 1938, in Rome, Italy, Martino comes from a family with a rich cinematic heritage, as his grandfather was the noted director Gennaro Righelli. Sergio began his cinematic career in his early twenties as an assistant to his writer/producer brother Luciano Martino, handling second unit director chores on Mario Bava's The Whip and the Body (1963),and made his directorial debut in 1969 with the mondo documentary Wages of Sin (1969).
He really hit his stride in the early 1970s with several superior giallo murder mystery thrillers that usually starred popular actress Edwige Fenech, who was married to Martino's brother Luciano at the time, including The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971),They're Coming to Get You! (1972),The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971),and Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972).
Martino subsequently collaborated with Fenech on a handful of other projects, including the bubbly sex comedies Sex with a Smile (1976) and Cream Horn (1981). Other people Sergio has frequently worked with are actors George Hilton, Ivan Rassimov, and Claudio Cassinelli, and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi.
Sergio's other worthwhile movies are the gritty spaghetti western Arizona Colt, Hired Gun (1970),the terrifically trashy Torso (1973),the rousing crime thriller The Violent Professionals (1973),the entertaining action/adventure romp Slave of the Cannibal God (1978),the fun "The Island of Dr. Moreau" rip-off The Island of the Fishmen (1979),and the funky post-nuke sci-fi/action opus 2019: After the Fall of New York (1983).
He has also directed various made-for-TV features and episodes of TV shows for Italian television, solidifying his position as a talented and versatile writer/director with a vast array of films to his credit.
