Russ Doughten

Personal Info

Known For Producer

Gender Male

Birthday 1927-02-16

Deathday 2013-08-19 (86 years old)

Also Known As Russell S. Doughten Jr.

Russ Doughten

Biography

Russell S. Doughten Jr. (February 16, 1927 – August 19, 2013) was an American film-maker and producer of numerous short and feature-length Christian films. His film work is credited under numerous variations of his name: with or without the "Jr." suffix or middle initial, and sometimes using the informal "Russ" instead of "Russell". Nearly all of his Christian films were shot in various locales in his home state of Iowa. While he worked on films, most notably as producer and director (uncredited) of the 1958 sci-fi/horror classic The Blob, he was best known for the religious Thief In The Night series, which dramatizes the Rapture and Second Coming of Christ and the struggles of a small band of believers against an increasingly hostile worldwide Antichrist dictatorship. The films of that series are: A Thief in the Night (1972) A Distant Thunder (1978) Image of the Beast (1980) The Prodigal Planet (1983) Doughten appears in all four films as Reverend Matthew Turner, a survivalist who has an elaborate chart of the End Times events, but does not fully believe in the Bible. With his long, graying hair usually worn in a ponytail and shaggy beard, he didn't look the part of the stereotypical Christian fundamentalist, a fact that is credited with earning him secular fans, as is his use of unusual camera angles and layered audio. While there had been feature-length Christian films before, including the End Times film If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? directed by Ron Ormond in 1971, a sweeping, ambitious project like "Thief"—with three sequels telling one continuous story over the course of a decade—had never been undertaken even in Hollywood.[citation needed] Doughten's identification of the Antichrist not with Communism as Ormond had done, nor with Jack Chick's sinister view of the Vatican, but rather with a worldwide government that initially acts as a global peacemaker, would set the tone for most fundamentalist interpretations of the End Times in the decades that followed. While the films were clearly made on a low budget, and the dated 1970's fashions shown in the early films provide unintentional amusement today, there is no denying the series' influence among Christian fundamentalists. "A Thief in the Night" is said to be the most widely seen Gospel film in the world and has been influential in many conversions to Protestant Christianity. Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins cite Doughten's films as being the primary influence for their million selling Left Behind series of books and films. Doughten's films are frequently shown in churches and on Christian television stations to this day. In the mid-1960s, Doughten taught English and drama and supervised and directed student productions at South Pasadena High School in California. His former students report that he was exacting in demanding their best efforts, but, they were proud of the results and the quality of the productions he directed and they regretted his departure in 1964 to return to film making in Ohio. Doughten died from a cardiac-related illness on August 19, 2013. -Wikipedia

Known For

Producer

1984
The Shepherd

as Executive Producer

1983
The Prodigal Planet

as Executive Producer

1981
Image of the Beast

as Executive Producer

1980
Heaven's Heroes

as Executive Producer

1979
The Paradise Trail

as Executive Producer

1978
A Distant Thunder

as Executive Producer

1977
1976
A Stranger in My Forest

as Executive Producer

1975
Survival

as Executive Producer

1975
The Lundstroms: Headin' West

as Associate Producer

1974
Blood on the Mountain

as Executive Producer

1974
The Lundstroms Livin' Happy

as Associate Producer

1973
Traveling with the Lundstroms

as Associate Producer

1972
A Thief in the Night

as Executive Producer

1967
The Hostage

as Producer

1958
The Blob

as Associate Producer

Writer

1984
The Shepherd

as Story

1983
1983
The Prodigal Planet

as Screenplay

1981
Image of the Beast

as Screenplay

1981
Image of the Beast

as Original Story

1981
Home Safe

as Writer

1980
Heaven's Heroes

as Screenplay

1979
The Paradise Trail

as Screenplay

1978
A Distant Thunder

as Original Story

1978
A Distant Thunder

as Screenplay

1977
1976
1975
Survival

as Writer

1974
Blood on the Mountain

as Screenplay

1972
A Thief in the Night

as Screenplay

Director

1983
The Healing

as Director

1982
Face in the Mirror

as Director

1981
Brother Enemy

as Director

1980
Whitcomb's War

as Director

1978
Nite Song

as Director

1977
Ride the Wind

as Director

1977
Sammy

as Director

1975
Happiness Is...

as Director

1968
Fever Heat

as Director

1967
The Hostage

as Director

1960
Teenage Diary

as Director

Actor

1983
The Prodigal Planet

as Reverend Matthew Turner

1981
Image of the Beast

as Reverend Matthew Turner

1978
A Distant Thunder

as Reverend Matthew Turner

1972
A Thief in the Night

as Rev. Matthew Turner