Mel Novak

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Mel Novak is an American character actor who is best known for villainous roles in action, martial arts and occasionally horror and science fiction films. He is also known for doing all of his own stunts and fighting scenes.

Career

Born in Pittsburgh, Novak played professional baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates before he began acting. His athletic career was cut short by a massive rotator cuff injury. Novak made his film debut in 1974, appearing in two blaxploitation films, Truck Turner and Black Belt Jones, the former starring Isaac Hayes, the latter Jim Kelly. Subsequent parts in The Ulimate Warrior (1975) starring Yul Brynner, Cat in the Cage (1978), starring Sybil Danning, and others followed. One of his more high-profile parts from the 70's was as the hitman Stick in Game of Death (1978), directed by Robert Clouse. Novak also had small roles in two Chuck Norris films, A Force of One (1979) and An Eye for an Eye (1981).

Since the turn of the 80's, Novack been acting mostly in low-budget, independent features, such as in Lovely But Deadly (1981) for director/producer David Sheldon, starring B-movie heroine Lucinda Dooling. In the 90's, he appeared in two films for director Garry Marshall, Exit to Eden (1994), based on the novel by Anne Rice, and Dear God (1996). In 2005, he appeared in the action/horror film Vampire Assassin, also featuring Gerald Okamura, with whom Novak has acted with in several films, and Rudy Ray Moore.

Personal life

Novak is also an Ordained Minister, having worked in skid row and prison ministry for over twenty years. He also has two daughters, Nikol and Lea, and a grandson from daughter Lea.

Filmography

Bibliography

• Gods in Polyester, or, A Survivors' Account of 70's Cinema Obscura (2004)

—Features several pieces by Novak on his 70's films.

• Gods In Spandex, or, A Survivors' Account of 80's Cinema Obscura (2007)

—Features several pieces by Novak on his 1980s films.

External links

• Mel Novak at the Internet Movie Database
• Mel Novak at Allmovie
• A Nanarland.com interview