Andy Sidaris

Andrew W. "Andy" Sidaris (February 20 1931 – March 7 2007) was an American television film director, producer, actor, and screen writer.

Biography

Sidaris was born in Chicago. He grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana. He graduated from C.E. Byrd High School, and went to Southern Methodist University in Dallas. His family was active in city sports circles. His brother Chris W. Sidaris (1927-2000), was the former director of the Shreveport Parks and Recreation Department.

Sidaris was best known for his "Bullets, Bombs, and Babes" series of B-movies produced between 1985 and 1998. These films featured a rotating "stock company" of actors mostly made up of Playboy Playmates and Penthouse "Pets", including Julie Strain, Dona Speir, Hope Marie Carlton, Cynthia Brimhall, Roberta Vasquez, Julie K. Smith, Shae Marks, and Wendy Hamilton. Several of his films were done wholly or largely in Shreveport using many local actors or actors with local ties.

Before the B-movies, Sidaris was a pioneer in sports television. He directed coverage of hundreds of football and basketball games, Olympic events, and special programs and won seven Emmy awards for his work in the field. His best known work was with "ABC's Wide World of Sports"; he was the show's first director, and continued in that post for 25 years.

Sidaris pioneered what he called the "honey shot", close-ups of cheerleaders and pretty girls in the stands at sporting events. He won an Emmy Award in 1969 for directing the Summer Olympics.

Sidaris branched out to dramatic television in the 1970s, having directed episodes of programs like "Gemini Man" (1976), CBS's "Kojak" (mid-1970s), ABC's "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" (late-1970s) and ABC's "Monday Night Football".

Then he expanded into film, specializing in action flicks featuring gun-toting Playboy Playmates with titles like "Fit to Kill" and "Savage Beach". Most of Sidaris' "Triple B" series (later given the title "L.E.T.H.A.L. Ladies") focused on the adventures of a team of secret agents and were mostly filmed in Hawaii. Several entries in the series were only produced by him and were written and directed by others. Although the series featured recurring characters, continuity between films was not a priority and it was common for an actress who played a villain (and was killed off) in one film to re-appear in a subsequent film as a hero.

With his wife, Arlene T. Sidaris (born ca. 1942) as his production partner, Sidaris made twelve films. After Sidaris' death, she currently runs www.andysidaris.com which is the official website to his 12 films.

Sidaris resided in Beverly Hills with Arlene until his death from throat cancer.

The Triple B Series

Written and directed by Andy Sidaris unless otherwise noted.

# "Malibu Express" (1985) - also producer
# "Hard Ticket to Hawaii" (1987)
# "Picasso Trigger" (1988)
# "Savage Beach" (1989) - also producer
# "Guns" (1990)
# "Do or Die" (1991)
# "Hard Hunted" (1992) - also producer
# "Fit to Kill" (1993)
# "Enemy Gold" (1993) - producer only
# "The Dallas Connection" - executive producer only
# "Day of the Warrior" (1996)
# "" (1998)

Other works

Director & writer

* "Stacey" (1973) (aka "Stacey and Her Gangbusters") (also producer)
* "Seven" (1979) (aka "Sevano's Seven") (also producer)

Director only

* "ABC's Wide World of Sports" (1961-1986)
* "The Racing Scene" (1969)

Actor

* "Two-Minute Warning" (1976)
* "The Bare Wench Project" (2000) as Dick Bigdickian
* "The Bare Wench Project 2: Scared Topless" (2001) as Dick Bigdickian
* "The Bare Wench Project 3: Nymphs of Mystery Mountain"

M*A*S*H

In addition, the Internet Movie Database lists Sidaris as the uncredited football choreographer for the 1970 film, "M*A*S*H".

Author

Sidaris, Andy & Arlene. "Bullets, Bombs, and Babes: The Films of Andy Sidaris", Heavy Metal Press. August 2003

ee also

*Girls with guns

External links

* [http://www.andysidaris.com Official site]
*imdb name|id=0796477|name=Andy Sidaris
* [http://www.ideagrove.com/blog/2006/07/media-orchard-interviews-beer-goggle.html Media Orchard interview (July 2006)]
* [http://www.dvdtalk.com/cineschlock/sidaris/interview.html DVD Talk - Interview by G. Noel Gross (October 2002)]
* [http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/showinterview.php3?ID=50 Digitally Obsessed - Interview by Rich Rosell]
* [http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/news/story?id=2792424&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines Associated Press Former 'Wide World of Sports' director dead at 76]
* [http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi]
* [http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070310/OBITUARIES01/703100355/1046/js07] -- Sidaris obituary, "Shreveport Times"