Spaghetti Western Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers

Spaghetti Western Director ~ José Bolaños

José Antonio Bolaños Prado was born in Mexico City on July 24, 1935. At the age of twelve he participated as an extra in the 1948 Orson Welles film “The Lady from Shanghai” It’s also been said he participated as a double in 1949’s “Puerto javen” starring Cantinflas. He entered the film industry as a co-producer on the film “Locura passional” by Tulio Demicheli in 1955. In 1966 he debuted as a director on “La soldadera” about women who participated in the Mexican Revolution.  

 He was known as something of a playboy but was also a screenwriter and director. He married Italian actress Venetia Vianello, but his biggest claim to fame is his relationship with Marilyn Monroe. He was her escort at the 1962 Golden Globe Awards. A year after her death, Bolaños claimed to fan magazine Motion Picture that the two were going to marry and adopt a child. However, he didn't produce anything to prove such, no one in Monroe's inner circle ever confirmed a romance or engagement, and none of her biographers have ever accepted Bolaños as anything more than an escort.

Bolaños directed six films between 1966 and 1979. He also was a writer on eight films between 1959 and 1989 and produced two films in 1959 and 1979.

José Bolaños died in Mexico City on June 11, 1994, at the age of 58.

José Bolaños directed only one Spaghetti western “Arde baby arde” (Lucky Johnny: Born in America) in 1970.

BOLANOS, José (José Antonio Bolaños Prado) [7/24/1935, Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico – 6/11/1994, Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico] – producer, director, writer, married to actress Elsa Aguirre (Elsa Irma Aguirre Juárez) [1930-    ] (1965-196?), married to actress Venetia Vianello (19??-19??), father of actress Diane Bolaños.

Lucky Johnny: Born in America – 1970

Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Nigel Balchin

Nigel Marlin Balchin was born on December 3, 1908, Wiltshire, England. After studying natural science at the University of Cambridge, Balchin divided his time between research work in science and industry (as an industrial psychologist) and writing. During World War II he was deputy scientific adviser to the Army Council.

In The Small Back Room (1943), his best-known novel, Balchin describes the conversation, behavior, and intrigues for position and power of the “backroom boys” with whom he worked during the war. Almost as successful is Mine Own Executioner (1945), a study of a psychiatrist unable to cure his own neuroses and of the tensions created in his marriage by his lack of self-confidence. The problems of the psychologically and physically disabled are a recurrent theme: the hero of A Sort of Traitors (1949) is a former pilot who has lost both arms; The Fall of a Sparrow (1955) explores the mental processes of a psychopath.

Balchin died on May 17, 1970, in London, England aged 61.

Nigel Balchin wrote the screenplay for only one Euro-western “The Singer Not the Song” in 1961.

BALCHIN, Nigel (aka Mark Spade) (Nigel Marlin Balchin) [12/3/1908, Potterne, Wiltshire, England, U.K. – 5/17/1970, Hampstead, London, England, U.K.] – novelist, writer, married to Elisabeth Evelyn Walshe [1910-1991] (1933-1951) father of Prudence Anne Balchin [1934-2004], psychologist Penelope Balchin Leach [1937-    ], Freja Mary Balchin [1944-    ], married to Yovanka ‘Jane’ Tomich (1953-1970) father of sports director Charles Zoran Marlin Balchin [1955-    ], women’s rights authority Cassandra Marlin Balchin [1962–2012].

The Singer Not the Song – 1961

Spaghetti Western Cinematographer ~ Anton Giulio Borghese

Anton Giulio Borghese is/was an Italian director, writer and cinematographer. He worked on fifteen films as a cinematographer between 1958 and 1977. One of those films “Valentino in 1958 he also wrote and directed.

I can find no biographical information on him.

Anton’s only Spaghetti western as a cinematographer was for 1968’s “Uno di più all'inferno” (Full House for the Devil” starring George Gilton and Claudie Lange.

BORGHESE, Anton Giulio (aka Anton Giulio Borghesi, Nino Borghesi) [Italian] – director, writer, cinematographer,

Full House for the Devil – 1968