Zalman King

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Zalman King (born 1941 in Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.) is a film director, writer, actor and producer.

As a young man, Zalman King played the outlaw Muley in an episode of the TV show Gunsmoke. His character shoots Marshall Matt Dillon as part of a plan to rob the Dodge City Bank, but as he and his gang are waiting for Dillon to recover (so they can try again to kill him), Muley falls in love with one of the girls at the Long Branch Saloon, which thwarts the plan.

From September 1970 until May of 1971, Mr. King played attorney Aaron Silverman on the drama The Young Lawyers, broadcast on the ABC television network. King later contributed a unique delivery to Trip With The Teacher (1975), skillfully portraying the psychopathic Al, a narcoleptic murderering motorbiker.

Born Zalman Lefkovitz, King directed several commercially successful films, including Two Moon Junction (1988), Wild Orchid (1990), and Red Shoe Diaries (1992), which became a long-running television series for Showtime network, and spawned many sequels. He is perhaps best known for his collaboration with director Adrian Lyne on the film 9½ Weeks which starred Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke, and the television series and film ChromiumBlue.com. He also appeared in Lee Grant's directorial debut feature film Tell Me a Riddle.

Perhaps King's best work as director was the 1995 film Delta of Venus based on the book by Anaïs Nin and starring Audie England. The film about an American girl living in Paris in 1939 is in many ways reminiscent of European art house films where erotica forms a centerpiece to a plot which is nevertheless about greater issues.


He is married to writer/producer Patricia Louisianna Knop.

[edit] External links