Director Noel Black was born on June 30, 1937, in Chicago, Illinois. He has a B.A. and Masters degree in Film from UCLA. His directing "debut" was with Skaterdater (1966), an 18-minute short that used only music and sound effects to advance the plot. Initially winning the Grand Prix and the Golden Palm Awards at the Cannes Film Festival, the picture went on to win more international film awards in 1966 and 1967 than any other American film. Black is best known for the his first feature-length film, Pretty Poison (1968), regarded by many as a film-noir classic, which starred Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld.