David Hess

David Hess fascinates me because he was so much more than the screen villains that made his name. Specializing in menacing, brutal characters through the 1970s and 80s takes nerve, yet behind that he was a director, screenwriter, producer and songwriter who even won a Jeff Award in 2007. The most chilling on-screen monsters are usually played by the most cultured artists, and Hess strikes me as exactly that paradox. A New Yorker who treated even the darkest roles as serious craft, he is the sort of character actor cinema history should never quietly forget. His range deserves more credit.

Name (English)

David Hess

Name (Japanese)

デイヴィッド・ヘス

Reading

でいゔぃっど・へす

Born

September 19, 1936 – October 7, 2011

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Rat

Origin

New York City, New York, United States

Occupation

actor / film director / film producer / songwriter / television actor

Awards & achievements

• 2007 Jeff Awards

• Official sitehttps://www.davidhess.com
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David%20Hess
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q890204

Tags

• New York
• actor
• film director
• film producer

Last updated

2026-06-23

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.