Horror Film Historian David Del Valle Dies at 77

David Del Valle, the horror film historian, author and interviewer, has died at the age of 77. He died on Wednesday at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, after a battle with esophageal cancer, according to The Hollywood Reporter. His death was confirmed to the trade publication by his caregiver and friend, the producer Dano Marino.

Born Ronald David Del Valle on 24 September 1949 in El Paso, Texas, he built a long career around the films that scared audiences in the cinema and on television. He wrote books on Hollywood history, including Lost Horizons Beneath the Hollywood Sign and Six Reels Under. He also appeared on screen himself, in From a Whisper to a Scream (1987), Evil Bong 420 (2015) and Puppet Master: Axis Termination (2017).

His best-known work may be the commentary track. A commentary is a spoken running guide, recorded by someone who knows a film well, that plays over the picture on a disc. Del Valle recorded dozens of them for laserdisc, DVD and Blu-ray. He recorded about 120 in all, for labels including Criterion Collection, Severin Films, Kino Lorber, Synapse Films, Scream Factory and Arrow Films, the trade reported.

He also made interviews. Under the Sinister Image umbrella, he produced and hosted a series of cable television interviews with figures from the horror and cult worlds. His guests included Vincent Price, Cameron Mitchell, Russ Meyer and Curtis Harrington.

The Price interview is the one many people in the field remember most. Del Valle first sat down with the actor at 16, while writing for the school newspaper at Encina High School. Years later, his hourlong 1987 interview with Price is considered the most substantial interview Price ever gave, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The two stayed close until Price died in 1993.

For readers new to the genre, the story of his career is a useful way into it. Horror films from the middle of the last century were often made quickly, on small budgets, and were rarely discussed seriously when they came out. Historians like Del Valle spent decades recording the people who made them, and preserving those conversations on disc and on television.

He is survived by the friends and colleagues who knew him through those recordings and interviews.