Jason Redmond / Star staff Will Zens, an 87-year-old retired filmmaker now living in Westlake Village, shows posters of some of the films he worked on during his career.

Will Zens made a name for himself in Hollywood as an independent filmmaker, but since 2003 the 87-year-old has lived quietly in Westlake Village with his wife.

From the 1960s into the 1980s, Zens made more than 20 feature films, low-budget movies that all made money. One of his films, 1974's "Hot Summer in Barefoot County," was screened in April as part of Quentin Tarantino's 50-film Los Angeles Grindhouse Festival 2007.

Born in Milwaukee, Zens took the slow route to Hollywood to stake his claim as an independent filmmaker — producer, director, writer and sometimes composer.

When World War II broke out, Zens joined the Air Force during the early going and did a four-year hitch, serving mostly as a test pilot.

"I got lucky," he said of his military career. "Even though I was out there in all the hot spots — England, France, Belgium, Germany — I never saw any action."

But there was plenty of action waiting for him in Hollywood. After being promoted to the rank of major, Zens was discharged and immediately returned to the "one and only woman" in his life, Janis, whom he married in 1942.

He resumed his education at the University of Southern California, where he earned a master's degree in cinema and then went to work.

Zens wasted no time getting into the thick of it when he took an office in the heart of Tinseltown in the early 1960s and formed Riviera Productions.

Under that logo, he made "Starfighters" (1964), the first movie former California Congressman Robert Dornan appeared in. Other titles that may jar some memories include "Capture That Capsule" (his first in 1961), "Trucker's Woman," "From Nashville With Music," "To the Shores of Hell," "Lethal Pursuit," "White Line Fever" and "The Fix," his last in 1985, when he folded up his tent and went into retirement.

Among the actors he worked with were Johnny Cash, Vince Edwards, Marilyn Maxwell, Marty Robbins, Leo G. Carroll, Buck Owens, Richard Arlen, Jack Cannon and Richard Jordahl.

"That's the trouble with getting to be my age," Zens said. "With the exception of Bob (Dornan), everyone in that list is dead."

Will and Janis Zens raised nine children, aided in the raising of 19 grandchildren and recently were presented with two great-grandchildren.

"Every once in a while I get a call from one of them telling me, Hey, Papa, one of your pictures is on TV tonight. Watch it!' "