Genre film fans likely know Mike Hodges best for his work directing the 1980 campy space opera “Flash Gordon,” based on the King Features comic strip of the same name. The film starred Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Max von Sydow, Topol, and Timothy Dalton, featuring music from Queen. He later made the 2003 video documentary “Queen: Greatest Video Hits 2.” “Flash Gordon” has become a cult classic in the years since its release, later being referenced (with a cameo from Jones) in the 2012 comedy “Ted,” and an unused sequence in 1983’s “A Christmas Story.”
Hodges first started his entertainment career as a teleprompter operator on British television. He learned about the business and began writing scripts, including the unmade “Some Will Cry Murder” for ABC’s “Armchair Theatre,” which allowed him to quit the job and concentrate on writing, then producing and directing. In the 2010 Mulholland Books interview, Hodges spoke about his writing as a logical extension of his career as a director rather than a change. He said that he used both mediums to explore “human curiosity” but that it was a “diminishing trait” in our modern times.
Hodges is survived by his wife, Carol Laws, sons Ben and Jake, and grandchildren, Marlon, Honey, Orson, Michael, and Gabriel.