Composer, Motion Picture Director. Though he created several operas he will probably be remembered for his one venture into movie making, 1969's "The Honeymoon Killers". Raised in Mt. Vernon, New York, he studied piano from an early age, was a fan of Gustav Mahler, attended Manhattan's Mannes College of Music, then trained in composition at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute with Gian Carlo Menotti. After receiving his degree in 1950 he worked on revivals of some of Menotti's pieces then from 1955 thru 1959 was music director of the "NBC Opera Theater". Kastle's 15 minute opera "The Swing" was broadcast in 1956 while his three act "Deseret", based on the life of Mormon leader Brigham Young, aired in 1961. In 1966 he produced "The Pariahs" about the 1820 sinking of the "Essex" by a killer whale, the same incident used by Herman Melville as the basis for "Moby Dick", and later created "The Passion of Mother Ann: A Sacred Festival Play", a three part piece about the Shakers. In 1969 he was approached about making a film depicting the ill-starred lovers Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck who were electrocuted at Sing Sing in 1951 for robbing and murdering three people found via personal newspaper advertisments. Kastle ended up as both screenwriter and director to keep the project within budget; "The Honeymoon Killers" proved a surprising hit and over the ensuing years has become something of a film noir cult classic. Despite his success with the movie he was never invited back to the silver screen, though he did continue to publish a few small choral and instrumental works; Kastle spent his later years as a professor at SUNY Albany and as organist of an Episcopal Church in Colonie, New York. At his death he left an unpublished piano concerto, some violin and piano sonatas, and at least three screenplays.