Will Zens is a low budget producer, director, screenwriter, and soundtrack composer who made several films in the 1960s.

Biography and filmography

Following service as a test pilot

Test pilot

A test pilot is an aviator who flies new and modified aircraft in specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques or FTTs, allowing the results to be measured and the design to be evaluated....

 in the U.S. Army Air Force in the European Theatre of Operations, Major Zens obtained a Masters Degree in film from the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

.

Zens made his first film Capture That Capsule in 1961

1961 in film

The year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:* Atlantis, the Lost ContinentB...

 with the actors Dick O'Neill

Dick O'Neill

Dick O'Neill was an American stage, film and television character actor best known for playing Irish cops, fathers, judges and army generals. He began his acting career as an original company member of Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.He served in the Navy then returned to the theater. In the late...

 and Richard Jordahl

Jordahl

Jordahl is a Norwegian family name that could refer to:*Asbjørn Jordahl - a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party*Anders Jordahl, developer of the C-shaped rail, the first anchor channel*History professor Donald Jordahl at Greenville College...

, with whom he would work on many more films.

Zens did not make another film until The Starfighters

The Starfighters

The Starfighters is an American film released in 1964. It was written and directed by Will Zens and stars future U.S. Congressman Bob Dornan. It is the subject of episode #612 of Comedy Central's Mystery Science Theater 3000. Public votes on the Internet Movie Database consistently place it amongst...

filmed at George Air Force Base

George Air Force Base

George Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located within city limits, 8 miles northwest of central Victorville, California, about 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California. The facility was closed by the Base Realignment and Closure 1992 commission at the end of the Cold...

 that chronicled the F-104 aircraft with Bob Dornan

Bob Dornan

Robert Kenneth "Bob" Dornan is a Republican and former member of the United States House of Representatives from California and a vocal advocate of pro-life and social conservative causes....

 in the lead role. Zens and Dornan next collaborated on a Vietnam war

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 film To the Shores of Hell

To the Shores of Hell

To the Shores of Hell is a 1966 Vietnam war film directed by Will Zens and starring Marshall Thompson, Richard Arlen, Dick O'Neill and Robert Dornan that was distributed by Crown International Pictures. Dornan may possibly have co-written the film as his Mother's maiden name was "McFadden".-Plot...

made the following year.

In 1967 Zens made The Road to Nashville and Hell on Wheels (1967 film) but made no more films until Hot Summer in Barefoot County

Hot Summer in Barefoot County

Hot Summer in Barefoot County is a 1974 comedy film directed by Will Zens and distributed by Troma Entertainment. The plot involves an undercover agent who is sent to small southern town in order to uncover an underground moon-shining ring, but when he finds out that the town is filled with...

(1974) and Truckin' Man (1975) with his final film The Fix in 1985.

External links