Writer-Director Norman Thaddeus Vane Dies at 86
The Hollywood Reporter
By Sam Weisberg
5/4/2015
Norman Thaddeus Vane, a writer-director behind such films as the 1983 cult horror film Frightmare and Club Life, a 1986 drama starring Tony Curtis, has died. He was 86.
Vane died Saturday morning of heart failure at his home in Hollywood, according to his housemates, actor-producer John Makshanoff and Jeff Vella.
Vane also penned the screenplays for the Herman’s Hermits showcase Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter (1968) — co-starring his then-wife Sarah Caldwell, whom he married when she was 16 and he was about 38 — and Lola (1970), a Richard Donner film that starred Charles Bronson and Susan George and was loosely based on that May-December union.
Born Norman Theodore Vein on July 7, 1928, in Brookhaven, N.Y., Vane wrote his first play, The Penguin, which starred Martin Landau. It opened off-Broadway in 1952 to favorable reviews.
Shortly after his less-than-stellar Broadway debut in 1956, Harbor Lights, he relocated to London, where he wrote his first two films, Conscience Bay (1960), which he also helmed, and The Fledglings (1964).
During this time, he owned nightclubs and was a frequent contributing writer to Penthouse magazine; the first story he submitted was about an English orgy.
VANE, Norman Thaddeus (Norman Theodore Vein)
Born: 7/7/1928, Brookhaven, New York, U.S.A.
Died: 5/2/2015, Hollywood, California, U.S.A.
Norman Thaddeus Vane’s western – writer:
Shadow of the Hawk – 1976 [story, screenplay]