Monte Hellman (/ˈmɒnti/; born Monte Jay Himmelbaum;[2] July 12, 1929 – April 20, 2021) was an American film director, producer, writer, and editor. Hellman began his career as an editor's apprentice at ABC TV, and made his directorial debut with the horror film Beast from Haunted Cave (1959), produced by Gene Corman, Roger Corman's brother.
Monte Hellman was born on July 12, 1929, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn,[3] to Gertrude (née Edelstein) and Fred Himmelbaum,[4] who were vacationing in New York at the time of his birth.[5] The family ended up settling in Albany, New York, before relocating to Los Angeles, California, when Hellman was 5 years old.[6]
Hellman was among a group of directing talent mentored by Roger Corman, who produced several of the director's early films. Hellman began by working on "low budget exploitation films with a personal slant," yet learned from Corman the art of producing commercially viable films on a tight budget while staying true to a personal vision.[7] Hellman's most critically acclaimed film is considered to be Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), a road movie that was a box-office failure at the time of its initial release but, according to Danny Peary in 1981, it has become a perennial cult favorite.[8]
In 2006, he directed "Stanley's Girlfriend", a section of the omnibus horror film Trapped Ashes. Hellman's section of the film was presented by the Cannes Film Festival that year out of competition as an "Official Selection," and Hellman was named president of the festival's "Un Certain Regard" jury.[17]
Hellman sustained a fall at his home on April 19, 2021. In critical condition, he died the next day at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California, at the age of 91.[21]