Fred Bailey

Frederick Bailey was born in Dallas, Texas (full name: John Frederick Bailey II). He made his debut as a feature director with a fantasy action/adventure about a sword-wielding superhero in Shogun Cop (1999), unveiled at the Tokyo International Fantastic Film Festival. He’s worked on a total of 23 scripts that have made it to the screen (two in foreign languages), plus another 30 that have yet to see celluloid. Bailey’s written extensively in documentaries, composing the narration for numerous bonus features included in DVD reissues of classics, such as The Day The Earth Stood Still, Laura, and the special edition reissue of The Wizard Of Oz. He wrote narration for profiles on actors Gail Russell, Ward Bond and Sean McClory, and the screenwriter James Edward Grant. He wrote narration for numerous Disney short features, including a time-line on Walt Disney. He also worked on longer documentaries for The Passion Of The Christ and The Shield. He co-wrote the narration for Ghost Mountain, shown at the Visitor’s Center at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in Borrego Springs, California. With an equally prolific background in live theatre productions, he’s directed over 100 stage plays in New York City and in various regional, repertory and stock theaters, including the world premiere of Beth Henley’s Sisters Of The Winter Madrigal. He’s a playwright, author of such stage pieces as The Bridgehead (which was co-winner of First Prize at the first annual New Play Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in 1977), No Scratch, Rio Pork, Lonesome Canyon, Walkie Talkie and Dirty Ugly People & Their Stupid Meaningless Lives. Gringo Planet, a science-fiction comedy, was produced on the stage in London in 1982 with a cast that included Peter Wight (Vera Drake (2004), Another Year (2010), Babel (2006)) and again at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in 1987. After decades of hands-on experience in the movie industry, both above- and below-the line, both in front of and behind the camera, Bailey turned to teaching in 2006. At the International Academy of Film & Television (IAFT) in the Philippines, he has taught Intermediate and Advanced Screenwriting and pioneered a course in Directing Actors, before moving on to the River Hollywood Training School in Tokyo, where he taught acting classes, drawing on his years of toiling in the trenches with actors. In 2010, he wrote, directed and on-screen hosted two 45-minute educational documentaries for IAFT, on Directing and Screenwriting. He holds a BFA in directing and playwriting from Southern Methodist University. He’s married to producer Atsuko Ohtani Bailey. They have a son, Angus, born in 2002.