From 1953 to 1969, Glut made a total of 41 amateur films, on subjects ranging from dinosaurs, to unauthorized adaptations of such characters as Superman, The Spirit, and Spider-Man.[3]
Due to publicity he received in the pages of Forrest J Ackerman's magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, Glut was able to achieve a degree of notoriety based on his work. This allowed him to increase the visibility of his films by obtaining the services of known actors such as Kenne Duncan and Glenn Strange, who reprised his most famous role as the Frankenstein Monster for Glut.
His final amateur film was 1969's Spider-Man, after which he moved into professional work full-time.
On October 3, 2006, Epoch Cinema released a two-DVD set of all 41 of Glut's amateur films titled I Was A Teenage Moviemaker. The total running time of both DVDs is 480 minutes, and includes a documentary about the making of those films, with interviews with Forrest J Ackerman, Randal Kleiser, Bob Burns, Jim Harmon, Scott Shaw, Paul Davids, Bill Warren, and others.[4]
He also claimed to have created some of the characters and much of the back story for the Masters of the Universe toy line, which served as the basis for the TV show.[5]
With the release of 1996's Dinosaur Valley Girls, Glut began a professional directing career that has seen him helm several exploitation-style films, such as The Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula (2001), The Mummy's Kiss (2003), Countess Dracula's Orgy of Blood (2004), The Mummy's Kiss: 2nd Dynasty (2006), and Blood Scarab (2007).[6] More recently he wrote and directed Dances with Werewolves (2017) and Tales of Frankenstein (2018).
Having been a classmate and friend[7] of Glut at the University of Southern California,[8]George Lucas approached him to write the novelizationofA New Hope, but Glut turned him down due to the low pay and the fact the Lucas' name would be on the cover. Glut then wrote the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back (1980). While working on the novel, he had difficulty due to the fact that details of the script and the art design were compartmentalized inside Lucasfilm. Descriptions of some characters and scenes in the novel turned out different from the film, as Glut had to base them on concept art by Ralph McQuarrie.[7]
Glut has written approximately 65 published books, both novels, and nonfiction, plus numerous children's books based on franchises. Many of his nonfiction books have been about dinosaurs, including Dinosaur Dictionary and the Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia series of reference works.
^Galbraith IV, Stuart (October 3, 2006). "I Was A Teenage Movie Maker: Don Glut's Amateur Movies". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on August 18, 2010. Donald F. Glut's amateur movies, shot between 1953 and 1969, acquired a kind of legendary status over the years partly because the films, with titles like Son of Tor and Spy Smasher vs. the Purple Monster, were frequently mentioned in the pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland and Fantastic Monsters.
^Jones, Brian Jay (2016). George Lucas: A Life. New York City: Little, Brown and Company. p. 61. ISBN978-0316257442.
^Markstein, Don (2007). "Doctor Spektor". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on May 27, 2024. Dr. Adam Spektor, a researcher of the supernatural, was introduced in Mystery Comics Digest #5 (July, 1972)...The story was written by Don Glut...and drawn by Dan Spiegle.
^Markstein, Don (2009). "Dagar the Invincible". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on May 27, 2024. Dagar started as a non-series character, the hero of a story that writer Don Glut...wrote for Gold Key's Mystery Comics Digest.
^Markstein, Don (2007). "Tragg and the Sky Gods". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on May 27, 2024. Writer Don Glut...and artist Jesse Santos...supplied the comic, in which aliens from interstellar space had a profound effect on a tribe of Stone Age people.
"The Occult Files of Donald F. Glut: An Interview with the Creator of Dr. Spektor". Interview by Scott Aaron Stine. Trashfiend vol. 1, no. 3 (Jan.-March 2003) pp. 20–23.
