Trivia

Martin Scorsese once said of Fuller, "It's been said that if you don't like The Rolling Stones, then you just don't like rock and roll. By the same token, I think that if you don't like the films of Sam Fuller, then you just don't like cinema. Or at least you don't understand it.".

Served as a rifleman in the US Army's 1st Infantry Division during World War II. He saw action in North Africa, Sicily, Omaha Beach on D-Day, and then on through Europe to Czechoslovakia. He was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart. He later used many of his war experiences in The Big Red One (1980).

As a reporter in New York in the 1930s, he reported on many suicide cases and always asked if he could keep the note if the deceased had left one. He was famous for his extensive collection of suicide notes.

As a young crime reporter with the "New York Evening Graphic", the veteran crime reporter who "showed him the ropes" when he first started out was Rhea Gore, the wife of Walter Huston and the mother of John Huston. Fuller's first big "scoop" was when he became the first journalist to report the death of Jeanne Eagels.

Close friend of Richard Brooks since the days when they were both reporters in New York.

Was the American-born son of Russian-Jewish immigrants named Rabonovitch, who changed their surname to Fuller apparently in tribute to a doctor named Sam Fuller who came to the US on the Mayflower.

He has been cited as a major influence by directors such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Quentin Tarantino, and Jim Jarmusch.

He was the guest of honor at the first annual film festival in Sodankylä, Finland, in 1986 (accompanied by such younger directors as Jonathan Demme and Bertrand Tavernier). Part of a street in Sodankylä was later renamed Samuel Fullerin Katu (Samuel Fuller Street).

He was known to younger filmmakers as a valuable mentor who was always happy to give advice or tell stories of his past, as a filmmaker, journalist and soldier.

He often uses a character named Lemchek in his war movies, either onscreen or as someone that the other characters talk about: There's a Lemchek in Fixed Bayonets! (1951), Merrill's Marauders (1962) and The Big Red One (1980).

Spent about 20 years working with small independent companies before moving to major studios.

He has directed three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: V-E +1 (1945), Pickup on South Street (1953) and Shock Corridor (1963).

He was 36 when he directed his first film.

Interviewed in "The Director's Event: Interviews with Five American Filmmakers" by Eric Sherman and Martin Rubin.

Father, with Christa Lang, of Samantha Fuller.

Owner of Globe Enterprises, a film production company.

He moved to New York City at a young age after is father's death.

Biography in John Wakeman, editor, "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985," pp. 375-382. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

Younger brother of Ving Fuller.

Father-in-law of Regan Farquhar.

Grandfather of Samira Fuller.