Offscreen Notes
Ray Lovelock: 1950-November 10, 2017
Born of an Italian mother and English father (who was part of the English army that landed in Italy in 1944 to help liberate Italy) Lovelock was a mainstay in the Italian film industry who worked on dozens of important popular genre films, starring in westerns, giallo, horror and crime films. Tall, blonde and handsome, Lovelock was a popular leading man type along with his equally handsome contemporaries Tomas Milian (also a good friend), Maurizio Merli, Terence Stamp, and Franco Nero. Lovelock’s first role was as the young cowboy who is lusted over by a homosexual gang of bandits, in the outstanding western, Django Kill….if you live shoot!, and was excellent as the young hippie up against arch conversative detective played by old Hollywood character actor Arthur Kennedy in the environmentalist zombie classic, The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue. His boyish good lucks served him well in the proto-feminist Queens of Evil, where his hippy on the run from the law hides out with the beautiful sisters, who have more than a sting in their tail. Perhaps Lovelock’s best run of form came in a series of important crime films when the poliziotteschi were popular and plentiful. Some of these include Almost Human, The Violent Four, Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man, and Violent City. Lovelock died at the age of 67 after a battle with cancer.
Italian bio but with a nice montage of clips: http://www.repubblica.it/spettacoli/tv-radio/2017/11/10/news/e_morto_ray_lovelock_nei_polizieschi_anni_settanta_e_in_tv-180722972/?ref=fbpr
