After 100 years, he's gone! Trashmaster Bert I. Gordon, "Mister B.I.G.", a seminal influence on the filmic taste of a wasted life, has entered the Film Palace in the Sky. He will be missed...
Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, he was already making his own movies for fun by his teens. After a stint in the army during WW II, he married his first wife, Flora Gordon (1925–2016) — whom he divorced in 1979 — and started making TV commercials for a living. Soon after working as a production assistant on the TV series Racket Squad(1951-53), he produced his first genre film, Serpent Island (1954) and never looked back. He may have made "Bad Films"— he has the dubious honor of being the director/producer with the most films to have ever been on Mystery Science Theater 3000— but many are classics of their day and remain truly memorable. And all get "better" with repeat viewings.
A career review is in the making....