BIO ~ Gene Freese
Arizona Film Historian/Actor/Writer
Gene was born and raised in Ohio, attending college in Indiana on a baseball scholarship. He graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor’s degree in Radio/TV Communications. An early job was working in a video store, which introduced him to a wide variety of film genres.
After college, He moved to Arizona and began working in the medical field. On the side, Gene wrote scripts and appeared in film and TV, most notably the Charlie Sheen action film “No Code of Conduct“.
After getting married and becoming a father, he began writing film-related biographical books for McFarland and Co., Publishers. These include “Jock Mahoney: The Life of a Hollywood Stuntman, Richard Jaeckel: Hollywood’s Man of Character, Hollywood Stunt Performers, Classic Movie Fight Scenes, and The Western Films of Robert Mitchum.
Research for these five books involved contact and interviews with numerous actors and stunt performers, especially in the Western genre. A number of these encounters led to lasting friendships. The overall public and critical feedback on the books was encouraging with Boyd Magers of “Western Clippings” calling the Mitchum book one of the best researched film books he’d ever read. This kept Gene on the lookout for additional subjects of interest to write about.
Gene’s current book project has been nearly five years in the making. It’s a three-volume encyclopedic work for the publisher Bear Manor Media entitled “Arizona Westerns. The first volume presents all the Western films made in Arizona dating back to the silent days of Tom Mix. The second volume covers television, video, DVD, and internet. The third volume details the Arizona locations and movie sets that were used in addition to the local Arizona people that contributed, often without credit as actors, stand-ins, stunt performers, riding extras, and wranglers.
Phone: 480-241-4381
Email: desertice97@yahoo.com
MEET THE HOST:
About Ben Freese
Ben Freese, a writer, director, actor and editor in the movie industry is the host of this exploratory emporium of ideas and insights into the local scene here in Tucson. Ben, sets out to make movies fun and entertaining while pushing what the local community has got going on. With his upcoming directorial debut feature film, “In Terror” releasing in 2023, Ben has his plate full with new upcoming projects as well, like his short horror film “Witchery”. Ben loves to chat it up with his guests every month: Talking about the movies!
Contact number: (520) 909-9170
