RIP Harry Alan Towers

Prolific B-movie producer and writer Harry Alan Towers, who made more
than 100 films working with cult stalwarts such as Christopher Lee and
director Jess Franco, died Aug. 2 of heart failure in Toronto. He was
88.

Towers started as a child actor in Britain and during WWII, he became a radio writer while serving in the Royal Air Force. He and his mother started a company called Towers of London after the war to sell syndicated radio shows around the world, and he went on to produce numerous programs for British television including "The Scarlet Pimpernel" and "Tales from Dickens." During the 1960s and 1970s, he wrote and produced dozens of films, sometimes credited as Peter Welbeck. Among the actors he worked with were Orson Welles, Michael York, Michael Caine, Richard Harris, James Earl Jones and Tony Curtis. Towers often shot in locations such as South Africa, Ireland and Bulgaria on films such as "The Face of Fu Manchu," Iran-filmed "Ten Little Indians," South African classic adaptation "Cry the Beloved Country" and "Klondike Fever." His association with Italian giallo auteur Franco produced films which have become underground classics including "Venus in Furs," "Eugenie," "Marquis de Sade: Justine" and "Night of the Blood Monster." Capitalizing on the industry's need for video titles during the 1980s and early 1990s, Towers provided a steady pipeline of films such as Robert Englund starrers "Phantom of the Opera" and "Danse Macabre," "Warrior Queen" and "Delta Force 3."

His literary agent, Albert T. Longden, said he was working on an autobiography. Recently he had been working on an adaptation of "Moll Flanders," which was at one time set to be directed by Ken Russell. He is survived by his wife, actress Maria Rohm.

Harry Alan Towers aka Peter Welbeck was involved in two Eurowesterns; 1972’s “The Call of the Wild” with Charlton Heston as producer and screenwriter and 1973’s “White Fang” with Franco Nero adding dialogue.