---
name: "Samuel Fuller"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/samuel-fuller"
fi1m_id: "samuel-fuller"
imdb_id: "nm0002087"
tmdb_id: 26959
wikidata_id: "Q262479"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "12 August 1912"
died: "30 October 1997"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-25T05:24:29.346048+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Samuel Fuller

## Identity

Samuel Fuller

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/samuel-fuller
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** samuel-fuller
- **IMDb ID:** nm0002087
- **TMDB ID:** 26959
- **Wikidata ID:** Q262479
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Fuller, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q262479, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002087/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/26959

Director. Born 12 August 1912 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Died 30 October 1997.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 12 August 1912, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
- **Died:** 30 October 1997
- **Also known as:** Sam Fuller, 사무엘 풀러, 새뮤얼 풀러, Samuel Michael Fuller 
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Fuller, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q262479, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002087/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/26959

## Streaming the US now

- **Tubi:** [*Pickup on South Street*](https://film.one/film/pickup-on-south-street.md) (84)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Samuel Fuller

> Samuel Fuller’s thrillers and war films are blunt, restless and attentive to people trying to get by. We value his precise staging and sympathy for difficult people, though the lecturing can wear us down.

In *Pickup on South Street* (1953), Fuller holds our attention on faces as people work out how far to trust one another. Greed, attraction and the need to earn a living compete with the demands of a spy hunt. We rate him for giving those less respectable motives proper attention, and for making the resulting thriller so brisk and funny. The people remain interesting even when the espionage becomes ordinary.

His crime-reporting background shows in his taste for sensational stories. *The Steel Helmet* (1951) established a personal approach to combat, followed by studio work including *Pickup on South Street* at 20th Century-Fox. Independence in the late 1950s led to *Shock Corridor* (1963) and *The Naked Kiss* (1964). These are stories of a mental hospital and a former prostitute, with the same interest in people respectable society would rather not examine.

That interest is clearest for us in Thelma Ritter’s Moe Williams, the informant in *Pickup on South Street*. Fuller’s screenplay treats her work as a livelihood, and Ritter makes the need to keep earning feel pressing. We were moved by her tired persistence, because she makes getting by matter even amid the spy business. Fuller never asks us to overlook what she does for a living. His hard-boiled dialogue also leaves room for humour; there is pleasure in these people’s impatience with one another.

Joseph MacDonald’s close-ups give changes of expression time to register, while Nick DeMaggio’s editing keeps the pauses tense. Fuller stages violence clearly enough for its force to come through without confusion. Leigh Harline’s music is serviceable; the actors’ impatient exchanges do more to sustain the film. The broader weakness is the lecturing: Fuller can press a message until the drama feels strained, and the bluntness already shows in this otherwise sharp thriller.

After a largely inactive spell in the 1970s, *The Big Red One* (1980) returned him to combat drawn from his own experience. *White Dog* (1982) came before a later period working mainly in Europe. Start with *Pickup on South Street*, where he gives difficult people enough time to become worth caring about.

## Biography

Samuel Fuller was an American film director, screenwriter and novelist. He began his career as a journalist, working as a copyboy from the age of 12 and later as a crime reporter for the New York Evening Graphic.

Fuller served in the US Army during the Second World War with the 1st Infantry Division. He made his directorial debut with *I Shot Jesse James* (1949) and went on to direct and often write low-budget films including *The Steel Helmet* (1951), *Pickup on South Street* (1953), *Shock Corridor* (1963), *The Naked Kiss* (1964), *The Big Red One* (1980) and *White Dog* (1982). He died in 1997.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, britannica.com, nytimes.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Pickup on South Street* (1953), Fi1m 84, Screenplay, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/pickup-on-south-street.md)

## Complete filmography (87)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Road to Jericho* (2026), Actor
- *Films to Die For* (2025), as (archive footage) (uncredited)
- *A Fuller Life* (2013), Book
- *Nuits transparentes* (2011), Actor
- *Carmel* (2009), Actor
- *The Big Red One: The Reconstruction* (2005), as War Correspondent (uncredited) · Director, Writer
- *Necro not(to b)e* (2003), as Sé stesso
- *The End of Violence* (1997), as Louis
- *Somebody to Love* (1994), as Sam Silverman
- *Girls in Prison* (1994), Writer
- *Rebel Highway* (1994), series, Writer
- *Golem: The Petrified Garden* (1993), as Sam
- *Golem, the Spirit of Exile* (1992), as Elimelek
- *La Vie de Bohème* (1992), as Gassot
- *The Madonna and the Dragon* (1990), as Chef de bureau Newsweek · Director, Screenplay
- *The Day of Reckoning* (1990), Director, Screenplay
- *Chillers* (1990), series, Director, Writer
- *Sons* (1990), as Father
- *Street of No Return* (1989), as Police Commissioner · Director, Dialogue, Screenplay
- *David Lansky* (1989), series, Actor
- *Falkenau, the Impossible* (1988), as Samuel Fuller
- *Mer de Chine: Le pays pour mémoire* (1988), as Le capitaine américain
- *Helsinki Napoli All Night Long* (1987), as Boss
- *A Return to Salem's Lot* (1987), as Van Meer
- *The Bleeding Star* (1987), as The Man in the Bar
- *Midnight Sun Film Festival* (1987), Actor
- *Let's Get Harry* (1986), Story
- *Report from Hollywood* (1985), Actor
- *Thieves After Dark* (1984), as Zoltan · Writer, Director
- *Slapstick of Another Kind* (1982), as Colonel Sharp
- *White Dog* (1982), as Charlie Felton · Screenplay, Director
- *Hammett* (1982), as Old Man in Pool Hall
- *The State of Things* (1982), as Joe
- *The Big Red One* (1980), as War Correspondent (uncredited) · Director, Writer
- *1941* (1979), as Interceptor Commander
- *Cinématon* (1978), as N°602
- *The Meanest Men in the West* (1978), Director, Screenplay
- *The American Friend* (1977), as The American
- *Scott Joplin* (1977), as Impresario
- *The Klansman* (1974), Screenplay
- *The Deadly Trackers* (1973), Story
- *The Young Nurses* (1973), as Doc Haskell
- *Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street* (1972), Director, Writer
- *The Last Movie* (1971), as Sam
- *Scene of the Crime* (1970), series, Director, Writer
- *Shark* (1969), Director, Screenplay
- *Targets* (1968), Screenplay
- *Cinéastes de notre temps : Samuel Fuller* (1967), as Interviewee
- *The Cape Town Affair* (1967), Writer
- *Made in U.S.A* (1967), Thanks
- *Pierrot le Fou* (1965), as Samuel Fuller (uncredited)
- *The Naked Kiss* (1964), Director, Producer, Writer
- *Shock Corridor* (1963), Director, Screenplay, Producer
- *The Virginian* (1962), series, Writer, Director
- *Merrill's Marauders* (1962), Screenplay, Director
- *Underworld U.S.A.* (1961), Producer, Director, Writer
- *The Crimson Kimono* (1959), Producer, Writer, Director
- *Verboten!* (1959), Writer, Director
- *Dogface* (1959), Director, Writer, Producer
- *Forty Guns* (1957), Screenplay, Director, Producer
- *Run of the Arrow* (1957), Writer, Director, Producer
- *China Gate* (1957), Director, Screenplay, Producer
- *House of Bamboo* (1955), as Japanese policeman (uncredited) · Director, Additional Dialogue
- *The Command* (1954), Writer
- *Hell and High Water* (1954), Director, Screenplay
- *Pickup on South Street* (1953), Screenplay, Director — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/pickup-on-south-street.md)
- *Park Row* (1952), Writer, Director, Producer
- *Scandal Sheet* (1952), Novel
- *Fixed Bayonets!* (1951), Director, Screenplay
- *The Tanks Are Coming* (1951), Story
- *The Steel Helmet* (1951), Writer, Director, Producer
- *The Baron of Arizona* (1950), Writer, Director
- *I Shot Jesse James* (1949), Director, Writer
- *Shockproof* (1949), Writer
- *Gangs of the Waterfront* (1945), Story
- *V-E +1* (1945), Director
- *Margin for Error* (1943), Screenplay
- *Power of the Press* (1943), Story
- *Confirm or Deny* (1941), Story
- *Bowery Boy* (1940), Original Story
- *Gangs of Chicago* (1940), Screenplay
- *She Married a Cop* (1939), Writer
- *Federal Man-Hunt* (1938), Story
- *Adventure in Sahara* (1938), Story
- *Gangs of New York* (1938), Screenplay, Story
- *It Happened in Hollywood* (1937), Screenplay
- *Hats Off* (1936), Story, Screenplay

## Awards

### Other awards — 1 won

- Lucien Barrière Literary Award 1991: Lucien Barrière Literary Award (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/samuel-fuller