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Matt Cimber (born Thomas Vitale Ottaviano; January 12, 1936) is an American Film producer, Film director, and Screenwriter. He is known for directing Film genre including The Candy Tangerine Man, The Witch Who Came from the Sea, Hundra, and Butterfly. Cimber has been called "an unsung hero of 70s exploitation cinema." He was co-founder and director of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) professional wrestling promotion and syndicated television series. Cimber also occasionally acts in films, television, and theatre.
Cimber was the third husband of actress Jayne Mansfield, and they had a son together, Antonio, born in 1965. He directed Mansfield on stage and in the film Single Room Furnished. This was not released until 1968, after her death in a car accident the year before.
Cimber proceeded to direct a string of "sexploitation films" under the pseudonyms "Gary Harper" and "Rinehart Segway," including Man & Wife: An Educational Film for Married Adults (1969), Sex and Astrology (1971), and The Sensually Liberated Female (1970), which was based on a best-selling book, The Sensuous Woman by Joan Garrity.
Cimber helmed three Blaxploitation of the mid-70s: The Black Six (1973), Lady Cocoa (1975) starring Lola Falana, and The Candy Tangerine Man (1975), the last of which Samuel L. Jackson and Quentin Tarantino have cited among their favorite films.
In 1976, Cimber ventured into psychological thrillers with The Witch Who Came from the Sea, starring Millie Perkins and Lonny Chapman, with cinematography by Oscar nominee Dean Cundey. Vice cited it as "One of the Top 10 Greatest Banned Films" and "a bit of a masterpiece." The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes voted it one of "90 Best '70s Horror Films."
Cimber's next film, A Time to Die, was a World War II thriller based on a novel by Mario Puzo. It starred Rod Taylor and Rex Harrison in his final screen performance. The film was shot in 1979 and released in 1982.
In 1982, Cimber teamed with Pia Zadora on the caper film Fake-Out, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and starred Telly Savalas and Desi Arnaz, Jr. He also directed the crime drama Butterfly, featuring Orson Welles and Stacy Keach, based on the novel The Butterfly by James M. Cain. Welles and composer Ennio Morricone were nominated for Golden Globe Awards, as was Zadora, who won the Golden Globe Award for Best Female Newcomer for her performance.
The following year, Cimber collaborated with actress Laurene Landon on the adventure films Hundra, which premiered at Cannes and featured a score by Ennio Morricone, and Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold.
After a 20-year absence from feature films, he wrote and directed Miriam (2006), based on the real-life story of Holocaust survivor Miriam Schafer, starring Ariana Savalas as Schafer.
Cimber's second wife is dress designer Christy Hilliard Hanak. Cimber and Hanak raised Tony Cimber.
| 1968 | Single Room Furnished | Credited as Matteo Ottaviano | |||
| 1969 | Man & Wife: An Educational Film for Married Adults | Credited as Gary Harper | |||
| 1970 | Africanus Sexualis (Black Is Beautiful) | ||||
| He & She | |||||
| The Sexually Liberated Female | |||||
| 1971 | Sex and Astrology | Credited as Rinehart Segway | |||
| Calliope | Credited as Gary Harper | ||||
| 1974 | The Black Six | ||||
| 1975 | That Girl from Boston | ||||
| Gemini Affair | |||||
| Lady Cocoa | |||||
| Alias Big Cherry | |||||
| The Candy Tangerine Man | |||||
| 1976 | The Witch Who Came from the Sea | ||||
| 1979 | Do It In the Dirt | ||||
| 1982 | Butterfly | Nominated:
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| Fake-Out | |||||
| A Time to Die | with Joe Tornatore | ||||
| 1983 | Hundra | ||||
| 1984 | Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold | ||||
| 1986-89 | Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling | As co-creator Television series – 108 episodes | |||
| 2006 | Miriam | ||||
| 2008 | Peace for Profit | Documentary film | |||
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