Hugo Fregonese (April 8, 1908, Mendoza — January 17, 1987, Buenos Aires) was an Argentine film director who worked both in Hollywood and Argentina.

He made his directorial debut in 1943. In 1949, he directed Apenas un delincuente. Most of Fregonese's American films were Westerns and crime melodramas, like Man in the Attic (1953) and Black Tuesday (1954).

Biography

A former sports journalist, Fregonese attended Columbia University in 1935, then was hired to be a technical advisor for films with Latin American themes. By 1938, he was again living in Argentina. There he worked as an editor, assistant director and short film director.

He had two children with his first wife, American actress Faith Domergue. The couple were married in Buenos Aires, at the San America Hotel, on June 16, 1947. The couple had a tumultuous relationship but it finally brought happiness when their first child, Diana Maria, was born on July 19, 1948 and the 2nd child, John Anthony, was born on May 14, 1950. The couple separated in 1957 and divorced on January 28, 1958.

On his later years, Fregonese directed films in Europe.

Partial filmography

• Apenas un delincuente, English title Hardly a Criminal (1949)
• One Way Street (1950)
• My Six Convicts (1952)
• Blowing Wild (1953)
• Man in the Attic (1953)
• The Raid (1954)
• Black Tuesday (1954)
• Seven Thunders (1957)
• Harry Black (1958)
• Old Shatterhand (1964)
• Savage Pampas (1966)
• Los Monstruos del Terror, also known as Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1970)