After early stage experience with the Theater Company Group in Los Angeles alongside his brother Barry, who would later go on to produce many of his films, Opper began working as a set designer and second unit director at Roger Corman’s New World Studios. He participated in one of Corman’s biggest successes, the sci-fi epic “Battle Beyond the Stars,” an elaborate space-set reimagining of Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai.” Soon after, together with several fellow alumni of the Corman factory Opper seized the opportunity to create “Android,” the first film project for Corman with Barry Opper as producer, James Reigle as co-writer, and Aaron Lipstadt as director.

Celebrated at festivals as a low-budget revelation, “Android” quickly earned cult status. With its clever screenplay and Opper’s poignant performance as Max, an android yearning to be human, the film became a magnificent debut for him.

It still took two years to reach cinema screens, as the team had to buy out Corman as he doubted its commercial potential. When it finally premiered in 1984, it was hailed by critics as a “sleeper hit.” Roger Ebert compared the film to the debut works of masters like George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and John Carpenter, while The Washington Post called “Android” “a small miracle made in 20 days, that succeeds chiefly because of Opper.”

Opper’s gift for nuanced storytelling was evident again in Wayne Wang’s neo-noir “Slam Dance” (1987). Starring alongside Tom Hulce, Virginia Madsen, and Harry Dean Stanton, Opper portraits the melancholic killer Buddy, who, like a dark doppelganger of Hulce’s main protagonist Charles Drood, forms the emotional epicenter of this film.

Rarely has the work of an writer been so inextricably interwoven between his role as the actor and the characters he portrays. In “Android,” Opper removed his name from the credits and promotional materials to lend the character of Max an added air of mystery and authenticity. The timeless question in filmmaking — who knows a character better, the actor or the writer — remains, in Opper’s case, an enduring enigma.


Don Keith Opper will be joined by his brother, producer Barry Opper, as a guest at the Oldenburg International Film Festival from September 10–14.



The Films of the Tribute: