10/18/1931 - 11/14/1970

Felix Venable was an older UCLA film undergraduate (he was 34 in 1965) with a mysterious past, who produced a film, Les AngeS Dorment, that was quite popular at the time for its refined cinematography and editing, and psychedelic approach. Venable was also a big influence on Jim Morrison, and the two were close friends. Venable died of pancreatic or stomach cancer in November 1970. [Source: Mark Toscano]

"I remember Felix telling stories about his years of living in Berkeley, attending U.C. Berkeley and then driving a bus for a living. Felix was an undergraduate transfer into UCLA. A great storyteller. Also a consummate bullshitter. Two personality traits that worked well together in Felix. He has been mythologized as Mephistopheles to Jim's Faust. Maybe so, but life is always more complicated than a literary analogy. There was a third running buddy in those UCLA film school and (drug fueled) post-UCLA film school adventures - Phil O'leno. Phil's still alive, somewhere in Northern California. Felix had applied to, and been accepted into the UCLA Film School Graduate Program, beginning in the fall of 1970, when he died of stomach cancer on November 14th, 1970."[Source: David Thompson, from MildEquator.com]