William Lustig was born on February 1, 1955 in Bronx, New York. During his teenage years, Lustig avidly watched a huge volume of lowdown trashy exploitation fare at numerous 42nd Street grind house theaters in Manhattan and also worked as a movie theater usher in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After graduating from high school, he took a few film classes at New York University.
Lustig began his film career in his mid to late teens, working behind-the-scenes in various minor production capacities on a handful of hardcore X-rated porno pictures as well as a production assistant on both "The Seven Ups" and "Death Wish." He made his debut as a director, producer and editor with the hardcore porn features "Hot Honey" and "The Violation of Claudia." Lustig directed both of these movies under the alias Billy Bagg.
In 1980, Lustig found himself at the center of a storm of controversy when he made the grim, gory and disturbing slasher sleaze splatter landmark "Maniac," which boasts an incredibly intense performance by the legendary character actor Joe Spinell as a vicious depraved psychopath and plenty of hideously graphic and gruesome make-up effects by horror genre icon Tom Savini. In 1982, Lustig followed up "Maniac" with the tough, gritty and exciting New York urban revenge opus "Vigilante." In 1988, he delivered another winner with the terrific "Maniac Cop," a violent horror action flick about an undead New York police officer on a killing spree which was the first of several cinematic collaborations with fellow maverick independent filmmaker Larry Cohen.
Lustig followed up with the 1989 stirring action item "Hit List" and the suspenseful serial killer thriller "Relentless" were likewise on the money excellent and entertaining offerings. However, the two "Maniac Cop" sequels were strictly hit-or-miss affairs: the second one was a worthy successor to the superior original and the third one was a regrettably mediocre entry in the series. Lustig's last film as a director to date was the nifty and enjoyable fright flick "Uncle Sam."
Since 1997, William Lustig went on to initially produce retrospective DVD documentaries for Anchor Bay and now currently runs the outstanding DVD label Blue Underground which restores and re-releases popular and little seen cult movies and other grind house action, drama, and horror films.
Nephew of boxer 杰克·拉莫塔.
Spent several years producing documentary shorts for Anchor Bay before branching out on his own with his new company. Blue Underground.
After procuring several films for Anchor Bay and producing the DVD packages for them, he began his own company in 2002 with the intent of releasing really cool films that may not reach a huge market, but should be treated like gems despite this. It has lived up to its mission statement by releasing rare, offbeat and foreign-language films.
Claims to have seen 生死狂澜 (1972) 70 times while working in a movie theater as an usher.
Met 乔·斯皮内尔 while working as a production assistant on 真假警察 (1973).
CEO of Blue Underground Inc., a DVD releasing company.
His last name means "funny" in German.
AHis pseudonym Billy Bagg comes from his day job at the time, delivering auto parts. Not wanting to get dirty handling auto parts, he used to request they put everything in a bag.