Career Highlights: Harry Black and the Tiger, Black Tuesday, Savage Pampas
First Major Screen Credit: La Guerra Gaucha (1942)
Biography
Listed in one movie encyclopedia as an "American-born director", Hugo Fregonese was actually a native of Argentina, and spent much of his professional life in that nation's film industry. A former journalist, Fregonese came to the U.S. to attend Columbia University in 1935, whereupon he was hired by Hollywood as a technical adviser for films with Latin American themes. He made his directorial debut in 1943, by which time he'd gone back to Argentina, where he remained until resuming his Hollywood career in 1949. Many of Fregonese's American directorial efforts were westerns (Apache Drums, The Raid) and crime melodramas (Black Tuesday, Man in the Attic); his best--and subtlest--film was the 1952 prison-reform seriocomedy My Six Convicts. In the early 1960s, Fregonese churned out a brace of German-filmed westerns based on the Karl May character "Old Shatterhand"; he returned to Argentina for his last film work, which included Savage Pampas (1966) and Mas Alla del Sol (1975). For several years, Hugo Fregonese was married to actress and Howard-Hughes protégé Faith Domergue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A former sports journalist, he attended Columbia University in 1935 then was hired to be a technical advisor for films with Latin American themes. By 1938, he was again living in Argentina. There he worked as an editor, assistant director and short film director. He made his directorial debut in 1943. Most of Fregonese's American films were westerns and crime melodramas (Black Tuesday, Man in the Attic). He also directed the India based movie Harry Black. He had two children by his first wife, Faith Domergue.