Harry Hurwitz

Harry Hurwitz (January 27, 1938 – September 21, 1995) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and producer. Hurwitz attended The High School of Music & Art and New York University, where he received a B.S. in 1960 and an M.A. in 1962. Before becoming a director, Hurwitz worked intermittently as a drawing, painting and filmmaking instructor at various institutions, including New York University, the State University of New York at New Paltz, Cooper Union, Parsons School of Design, Queens College, Purchase College, the New York Institute of Technology and the Pratt Institute. His directorial debut film The Projectionist included the first acting role for actor/comedian Rodney Dangerfield. He often used the pseudonym Harry Tampa.

In the early 1970s, Hurwitz was an artist-in-residence at the University of South Florida in Tampa. It was at that time that he produced the black-and-white serigraphic self-portrait that briefly (and inexplicably, as the film is set in Los Angeles) appears on the walls of the main character May's (Susan Dey) apartment in the 1986 film Echo Park.