David E. Durston


David E. Durston was an American screenwriter and film director best known for directing the Charles Manson-inspired cult classic drive-in horror exploitation film I Drink Your Blood, which was released in 1970.

Career

Durston wrote and directed for the famous television series Playhouse 90. He appeared in the obscure DuMont Television Network series Chez Paree Revue in 1950.
In 1965, he directed his first feature film, The Love Statue, which dealt with LSD use. His second feature was the 1970 exploitation horror film I Drink Your Blood, about a cult of Manson Family-esque Satan-worshipping hippies who, after becoming infected with rabies, turn into zombies.
Durston followed this with the dramas Blue Sextet and Stigma, before shifting his career to hardcore gay porn, with the films Boy 'Napped! and Manhole, the latter of which was not released due to one of its cast members being cast in Escape from Alcatraz, as the association between him and gay pornography would hurt both his career and the Clint Eastwood film he'd appeared in later.
In later years, Durston attempted to develop a modernized remake of I Drink Your Blood, but the project was cancelled due to Durston's death.

Mysterious deaths

In January 1985, Edward Durston accompanied actress Carol Wayne on vacation at the Las Hadas Resort in Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico.
After the pair argued, Wayne reportedly took a walk on the beach. Three days later a local fisherman found the woman's body in the shallow bay. An autopsy performed in Mexico revealed no signs of alcohol or other drugs in her body. Her death was ruled "accidental".
Durston had also been present during the death of actress Diane Linkletter in 1969, when she jumped from her sixth-floor Hollywood apartment window. Her death was blamed on the drug LSD but toxicology tests found no LSD in her body after she died. Durston reported that he visited the young actress after a phone call at 3.00am. Linkletter was distressed and unhappy. After making some cookies, they sat up talking. At about 9.00am Linkletter went out to the kitchen and didn't return. According to the report Durston made to Los Angeles homicide detective Lt. Norman Hamilton, by the time he went looking for her, he was too late to prevent the young woman from jumping out the window. “She went over to a window. I tried to grab her and she went out,” said Durston. Linkletter died from her injuries caused by the fall.

Death

Durston died on May 6, 2010 of complications from pneumonia.

Filmography

As film director:
As screenwriter: