Curtis Harrington (September 17, 1926 - May 6, 2007) was an American film and television director whose work included experimental films, horror films, and episodic television.

Harrington was born in Los Angeles and attended Occidental College and the University of Southern California and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a film studies degree.

He began his career as a film critic, writing a book on Josef von Sternberg in 1948. He directed several avant-garde short films in the 1940s, including Fragment of Seeking and Picnic. Harrington worked with Kenneth Anger, serving as a cinematographer on Anger's Puce Moment and acting in Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome.

Harrington had cameo roles in films such as Orson Welles's The Other Side of the Wind and Bill Condon's Gods and Monsters. (Harrington knew James Whale during the end of Whale's life, and was a major contributor to Condon's film.) He also directed Who Slew Auntie Roo? (1971) with Shelley Winters, What's the Matter With Helen? with Winters and Debbie Reynolds (1972), and The Killer Bees (1974) with Gloria Swanson in one of her last film roles.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Harrington directed episodes of Dynasty, Wonder Woman, The Twilight Zone, and Charlie's Angels for television.

He died in 2007. He is considered one of the forerunners of New Queer Cinema.

Curtis Harrington was an excellent and shamefully underrated writer and director who specialized in marvelously offbeat and atmospheric low-budget independent horror pictures. Harrington was born on September 17th, 1926 in Los Angeles and grew up in Beaumont, California. A lifelong hardcore film buff from a very young age, Harrington worked as a movie theater usher, a messenger at Paramount, and a stagehand during his younger days. He made his first 8mm effort at age fourteen and attended UCLA. In the post World War II 40s and 50s Harrington made a bunch of experimental avante garde underground shorts which include "Picnic," "Fragment of Seeking," "The Assignation," and "Wormwood Star." He was the cinematographer on Kenneth Anger's "Puce Moment" and acted in Anger's "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome." Harrington also was involved with fellow avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren. He began working for Jerry Wald Productions at 20th Century Fox in 1957 and served as a producer's assistant on several big budget pictures that include "Peyton Place" and "The Long Hot Summer." In 1961 Harrington made his strong and impressive feature length fright film debut with the nicely moody and quirky "Night Tide." His follow-up features were a pleasingly diverse, idiosyncratic and often entertaining bunch; said pictures include the nifty sci-fi/horror "Alien" precursor "Queen of Blood," the delightfully campy Shelley Winters vehicles "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" and "What's the Matter With Helen?" (the latter was Harrington's personal favorite amongst all the movies he made), the perverse "The Killing Kind," and the immensely fun "Ruby." Moreover, Harrington directed a handful of solid and satisfying made-for-TV offerings: "How Awful About Allan," "The Cat Creature," "The Killer Bees," "The Dead Don't Die," and the hilariously horrible "Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell." In addition, Harrington directed episodes of such popular TV shows as "Dynasty," "The Twilight Zone," "The Colbys," "Hotel," "Wonder Woman," and "Charlie's Angels." Harrigton's final film was the typically oddball short "Usher." Curtis Harrington died at age 80 from complications following a stroke on May 6th, 2007.