Halloween Actors Deaths
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Balding, quietly spoken, of slight build and possessed of piercing blue eyes -- often peering out from behind round, steel-rimmed glasses -- Donald Pleasence had the essential physical attributes which make a great screen villain. In the course of his lengthy career, he relished playing the obsessed, the paranoid and the purely evil. Even the Van Helsing-like psychiatrist Sam Loomis in the Halloween (1978) franchise seems only marginally more balanced than his prey. An actor of great intensity, Pleasence excelled on stage as Shakespearean villains. He was an unrelenting prosecutor in Jean Anouilh's "Poor Bitos" and made his theatrical reputation in the title role of the seedy, scheming tramp in Harold Pinter's "The Caretaker" (1960). On screen, he gave a perfectly plausible interpretation of the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, in The Eagle Has Landed (1976). He was a convincingly devious Thomas Cromwell in Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972), disturbing in his portrayal of the crazed, bloodthirsty preacher Quint in Will Penny (1967); and as sexually depraved, alcohol-sodden 'Doc' Tydon in the brilliant Aussie outback drama Wake in Fright (1971). And, of course, he was Ernst Stavro Blofeld in You Only Live Twice (1967). These are some of the films, for which we may remember Pleasence, but there was a great deal more to this fabulous, multi-faceted actor.
Donald Henry Pleasence was born on October 5, 1919 in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, to Alice (Armitage) and Thomas Stanley Pleasence. His family worked on the railway. His grandfather had been a signal man and both his brother and father were station masters. When Donald failed to get a scholarship at RADA, he joined the family occupation working as a clerk at his father's station before becoming station master at Swinton, Yorkshire. While there, he wrote letters to theatre companies, eventually being accepted by one on the island of Jersey in Spring 1939 as an assistant stage manager. On the eve of World War II, he made his theatrical debut in "Wuthering Heights". In 1942, he played Curio in "Twelfth Night", but his career was then interrupted by military service in the RAF. He was shot down over France, incarcerated and tortured in a German POW camp. Once repatriated, Donald returned to the stage in Peter Brook's 1946 London production of "The Brothers Karamazov" with Alec Guinness although he missed the opening due to measles, followed by a stint on Broadway with Laurence Olivier's touring company in "Caesar and Cleopatra" and "Anthony and Cleopatra". Upon his return to England, he won critical plaudits for his performance in "Hobson's Choice". In 1952, Donald began his screen career, rather unobtrusively, in small parts. He was only really noticed once having found his métier as dastardly, sneaky Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955). It took several more years, until international recognition came his way: first, through the filmed adaptation of The Guest (1963), and, secondly, with his blind forger in The Great Escape (1963), a role he imbued with added conviction due to his own wartime experience.
Some of his best acting Donald reserved for the small screen. In 1962, the producer of The Twilight Zone (1959), Buck Houghton, brought Donald to the United States ("damn the expense"!) to guest star in the third-season episode "The Changing of the Guard". He was given a mere five days to immerse himself in the part of a gentle school teacher, Professor Ellis Fowler, who, on the eve of Christmas is forcibly retired after fifty-one years of teaching. Devastated, and believing himself a failure who has made no mark on the world, he is about to commit suicide when the school's bell summons him to his classroom. There, he is confronted by the spirits of deceased students who beg him to consider that his lessons have indeed had fundamental effects on their lives, even leading to acts of great heroism. Upon hearing this, Fowler is now content to graciously accept his retirement. Managing to avoid maudlin sentimentality, Donald's performance was intuitive and, arguably, one of the most poignant ever accomplished in a thirty-minute television episode. Once again, against type, he was equally delightful as the mild-mannered Reverend Septimus Harding in Anthony Trollope's The Barchester Chronicles (1982).
Whether eccentric, sinister or given to pathos, Donald Pleasence was always great value for money and his performances have rarely failed to engage.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Arthur Malet was born on 24 September 1927 in Lee-on-Solent, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Mary Poppins (1964), Halloween (1978) and The Secret of NIMH (1982). He died on 18 May 2013 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Adam Hollander was born on 14 October 1964 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Halloween (1978), Welcome Back, Kotter (1975) and Hotel (1983). He died on 24 September 1984 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
- Peter Griffith was born on 23 October 1933 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He was an actor, known for Halloween (1978), Suspense (1949) and Roads to Romance (1946). He was married to Debra Meyer Boyd, Marianne ?, Daryl ?, Nanita Greene and Tippi Hedren. He died on 14 May 2001 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
- American character actor of stage, films, and television. A native of Idaho, Rainey was the son of a colorful character who was, among many other things, a champion of local dance contests. As a boy, Rainey was painfully shy, but found an outlet in school plays. He pursued stage work in regional companies, then went to New York to study with the legendary Michael Chekhov. He worked numerous "civilian" jobs while attempting to make a career as an actor, including work as a logger, a lineman, and a licensed carpenter. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, then went to California where he helped start the Ojai Valley Players and then acted in his first film in 1949. He became a familiar face in films and television shows of all sorts during the next five decades while maintaining a deep attachment to the theatre. In his ninetieth year, he played Giles Corey in "The Crucible" at Theatricum Botanicum, the Topanga, California theatre founded by his friend, the late Will Geer.
- John Louis Zendejas Sr. was born in Dunsmuir California in 1944. Little is known about John's father's side of the family, but on his mothers side he was equal parts German and English. His Grandfather (Schroll) was a second generation German immigrant. His Grandmother (James) extended from a long line of American heritage. The James family is best known for the old west outlaw Jesse James. Yes, John and Jesse were related. His mother and step father went on to have 3 other children (Anita, Maria, Michael). John's early years were spent helping the family and going to school. The family lived very modestly and to help bring in more money for the family John dropped out of High school prematurely, working with his step father as a day-laborer. At age 18 John joined the Air Force. He served 3 years before being discharged. After the Air Force he moved back to Northern California and became a police officer in Santa Maria. Police work wasn't quite what he was looking for so he quit after just one year. Next began his inevitable turn to show business. John joined a team of traveling professional wrestlers, becoming one of the original pioneers of the sport. He had wrestling experience in high school and was eager to use his size and strength to his advantage. Wearing a cape and mask he performed WWF type moves for captive audiences, well before the WWF hay-day. Now married, John began to realize that pro wrestling wasn't going to financially support a family. So, he got in touch with some old friends who were in the race car industry and somehow convinced them that he should drive dragsters for them. At that time, anyone who was crazy enough to want to get into a race car would probably be given a shot. So drive he did! After a good stint at driving his wife convinced him that with a baby on the way it was just too dangerous to continue. So he settled for managing the Santa Maria race track instead. It was during this time that John got the crazy idea to use a sticky liquid spray on the track that would give the race car tires better traction. The spray was called VHT. It quickly caught on and before long all the race tracks were using VHT. The sticky compound is still used to this day and is a big part of how tremendous speeds are achieved by modern race cars. It was also during this time that John met an individual that wanted to make a movie about drag racing. This time John convinced the director that he'd be perfect for the role. The film was called Burnout. Although the film was a flop John learned that he really liked acting. After attending a prestigious acting school in LA and obtaining an agent John went for broke and began auditioning for TV roles, under the abbreviated name Zenda. Before long his commitments paid off and he started landing roles on shows such as Batlestar Galactica, Hawaii Five-O, The Rockford Files, Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, Starsky and Hutch, etc. In 1983 he landed a role on a movie called Bad Boys starring Sean Penn. On the set he and Penn hit it off. They became friends and co-workers going on to do other films together, such as Colors. Penn even employed John as his personal body guard for a period of time. John's acting career included other classic roles in films such as Holloween 2 and Backtrack, though his television roles are what comprised the majority of his work. During this time John also pursued another one of his passions, body building. He began by performing in smaller shows and eventually worked his way up to bigger shows. When his trophy room was big enough, he quit. John went on to teach acting at the Orange County High School of the Arts, and even directed some large scale plays. Beginning in the early 90's John decided to re-focus on his love for racing. He went back to NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) and was put in charge of the new 'Historical Services' division. He became the curator of the Hot Rod Meseum located in Pomona, CA. In 1994 John contracted Pancreatic cancer which claimed his life at age 50. He was inducted into the NHRA hall of fame the following year for his contributions to the development of motor sports.
- Actress
Lucille Benson was a plump, distinctive, and marvelously quirky character actress with a heavy down-home Southern accent who portrayed an offbeat and enjoyable array of colorful supporting dotty old lady roles in both films and TV shows alike. Benson was born on July 17, 1914 in Scottsboro, Alabama. She was adopted and raised by her aunt after her mother died of tuberculosis. Lucille graduated from Jackson County High School, where she was valedictorian and president of her class. Benson attended both Huntingdon College in Montgomery and Northwestern's School of Drama in Evanston, Illinois. She worked briefly as a teacher prior to moving to New York to pursue an acting career in the 1930's. Lucille appeared in the Broadway plays "The Doughgirls," "The Day Before Spring," "Happy Birthday," "As the Girls Go," "Hotel Paradiso," "Period of Adjustment," and "Walking Happy." Benson acted in the Tennessee Williams play "Orpheus Descending" at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Florida and co-starred alongside Donald O'Connor in a three month Las Vegas stage production of "Little Me." She made her film debut in the 1959 feature The Fugitive Kind (1960). Lucille was memorably funny and spirited as the flaky lady at the Snakerama in Steven Spielberg's terrific made-for-TV thriller classic Duel (1971) She later parodied this particular part in the hilariously raucous 1941 (1979). Benson gave a splendidly creepy and delightful performance as wacky fleabag hotel owner Aunt Martha in Paul Bartel's deliciously perverse horror exploitation oddity Private Parts (1972). Other noteworthy film roles include tough lifer prison inmate Billie in Women in Chains (1972), Billy Pilgrim's mother in Slaughterhouse-Five (1972), the eccentric Janet Poole in The Devil's Daughter (1973), stern, but friendly whorehouse madam Peg in Ramblin'Man (1979), and the doddery Ms. Elrod in Halloween II (1981). Lucille had a recurring role as hotel manager Lilly Sinclair in the sitcom Bosom Buddies (1980). Among the TV shows Benson made guest appearances on are Alice (1976), Simon & Simon (1981), The Love Boat (1977), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), Little House on the Prairie (1974), Eight Is Enough (1977), The Waltons (1972), Wonder Woman (1975), Cannon (1971), and Bonanza (1959). She also acted in TV commercials. Lucille Benson died at age 69 from liver cancer on February 17, 1984.- Howard Culver's first radio shows were for CBS when he was in High School; worked most Hollywood-based radio shows, and many in San Francisco, including starring role as "Straight Arrow", and co-star with Mercedes McCambridge in "Defense Attorney". TV credits are many, including the entire 20 years of "Gunsmoke", a part of Jack Webb's stable, and one of Irwin Allen's regulars. He died in 1984 in Hong Kong after a vacation in China.
- Roger Hampton was born on 12 April 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Critters (1986), Halloween II (1981) and Columbo (1971). He died on 15 September 2012 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Art Department
Daniel Peter "Dan" O'Herlihy was born on 1 May 1919 at Odessa Cottage, Wexford Town, County Wexford (Ireland) to John Robert O'Herlihy, a civil servant from Cork who later worked in the Department of Industry and Commerce, and Ellen (née Hanton). Dan had at least two siblings, a sister and a younger brother (Michael O'Herlihy, who became a television director). The family moved to Dublin when Dan was one year old. Educated at CBS Eblana (Dún Laoghaire Christian Brothers School), as a teenager he developed literary ambitions. Upon entering UCD, he applied to study law but rapidly switched to architecture which allowed him to use his drawing skills. While a student he published political cartoons in Irish newspapers under the initials "TOC".
O'Herlihy decided not to follow in his father's footsteps, forsaking the life of an architect in favour of the acting profession. The tall, distinguished-looking university graduate boasted a rich, resonant voice which enabled him to easily find work in radio plays, as well on the stage. He first came to note as a small part actor with the Gate and Abbey Theatre Players, on occasion putting his architectural qualifications to use as a set designer. His first leading role was in Sean O'Casey's play 'Red Roses for Me' in 1944. During one of his performances in Dublin, he was spotted by the director Carol Reed and cast as an IRA terrorist in Odd Man Out (1947). This, and another London-produced film, Hungry Hill (1947), resulted in good critical notices , prompting another genial filmmaker, Orson Welles, to cast O'Herlihy in the role of Macduff for his Mercury/Republic production of Macbeth (1948). While this enterprise was far from successful, the actor's rugged, bearded appearance sufficiently impressed Luis Buñuel to cast him in the titular role of Robinson Crusoe (1954).
Until the arrival of "Friday", the only other featured character, this definitive version of Daniel Defoe's shipwrecked 17th century mariner was a tour-de-force one man show, a compelling, wordless portrayal of agonised solitude. However, as the Mexican production was considered merely a B-movie in Hollywood, O'Herlihy was forced to invest some of his own money to have the film exhibited in Los Angeles. While he was rewarded with an Oscar nomination, few worthy job offers came his way. For the remainder of the decade, he worked under short-term contracts as a character actor (often billed as "Daniel O'Herlihy") for Universal and 20th Century Fox, typically cast in costume dramas like The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), The Purple Mask (1955) and The Virgin Queen (1955). When movie roles became scarce, he branched out into anthology television, eventually becoming a much sought-after guest star on popular prime time shows like The Untouchables (1959), Bonanza (1959) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). Work on radio shows, like 'Johnny Dollar', 'Suspense' and 'Lux Radio Theatre', also continued to provide him with a steady source of income.
From the mid-1960s, he was afforded several better film opportunities: first, in a memorable dual role as the sinister, voyeuristic Dr.Caligari AND the handsome psychiatrist treating repressed mental patient Jane Lindstrom (Glynis Johns), in Robert Bloch's off-beat psycho-thriller, The Cabinet of Caligari (1962). Second, he played an anguished U.S. Air Force general contemplating orders to drop a hydrogen bomb over New York, in Sidney Lumet's gripping anti-war drama Fail Safe (1964). He was also, among later big screen appearances, one of many name actors in the star-studded military epic Waterloo (1970) (as Napoleon's "Marshal Ney"); unrecognisable in make-up as a reptilian alien in the 'Star Wars' clone The Last Starfighter (1984); as irredeemable villains in Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) and RoboCop (1987); and as the inscrutable Andrew Packard in Twin Peaks (1990) on television. He continued to alternate film work with acting on stage in Los Angeles and at the Abbey Theater. Dan O'Herlihy died on 17 February 2005, aged 85. He left his papers to the care of University College Dublin (UCD) where he had graduated with a degree in architecture in 1945.- Character actor Michael Currie was born Herman Christian Schwenk Jr. on July 24, 1928 in Kingston, New York. His parents were Herman C. Schwenk and Mabel Lockwood. Currie was the youngest of three children. He attended Kingston High School, where he sang in the a cappella choir and played football. Michael worked in his family business Schwenk's Bakery during the summer and on weekends. He graduated from St. Lawrence University with a degree in psychology and was an apprentice at the Woodstock Playhouse. Currie did graduate work at both Cornell University and the University of Ohio. Michael served two years in Okinawa during the Korean War. Following his tour of duty, Currie taught theater at SUNY New Paltz. He met his future wife Ann Dods on a blind date in 1960 and married her later that same year.
Michael acted in four movies with Clint Eastwood; he was especially memorable as Captain Donnelly in "Sudden Impact" and "The Dead Pool." He was likewise impressive as jolly hotel owner Rafferty in "Halloween III: Season of the Witch." Currie had a recurring role as Sheriff Jonas Carter in the popular daytime horror soap opera "Dark Shadows." Among the other TV shows he made guest appearances on are "M.A.S.H.," "Family," "Soap," "Cheers," "Dallas," and "Newhart." Michael's stage credits include a Broadway production of "Love and Kisses" as well as Off-Broadway productions of such plays as "The Premise" and "What Price Glory." He was the father of son John and daughter Catherine. Currie died at age 81 on December 22, 2009 in Freeport, Maine. - Ralph Strait was born on 8 July 1936 in Bradley Beach, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Search for Tomorrow (1951) and The Super Cops (1974). He died on 31 July 1992 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Maidie Norman was born Maidie Ruth Gamble on October 16, 1912, in Villa Rica, Georgia, to Louis and Lila Gamble. She received a B.A. from Bennett College in 1934 and a master's degree from Columbia University three years later. She also attended the Actors Lab in Hollywood from 1946 to 1949.
Norman first appeared on film in The Peanut Man in 1947. Throughout the fifties-not a good time for film roles for black women-she appeared in a number of films, such as Bright Road (1953) with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte and Torch Song (1953); About Mrs. Leslie and Susan Slept Here in 1954; and 1956's Written on the Wind. These were often servant roles, with a special fifties blandness. Still, Norman was skillful and professional in her execution of them. In 1962, she got a chance to chew up the scenery with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
In 1968-69, Norman was an artist-in-residence at Stanford University and, throughout the seventies, she was lecturer, director, and acting teacher at UCLA. At the same time, Norman was highly visible on television, appearing in Mannix, Adam 12, Streets of San Francisco, Kung Fu, The Jeffersons, and others. She was also part of the cast of Roots: The Next Generation in 1979.
Norman was a founding member of the American Negro Theater West; in 1977, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame; and an award in her name is presented each year for outstanding research by an undergraduate in Black Theater at UCLA. She died on May 6, 1998.- Paddi Edwards was born on 8 March 1931 in Bristol, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Hercules (1997), The Little Mermaid (1989) and Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). She died on 18 October 1999 in Encino, California, USA.
- Martin Cassidy was born in 1938 in Manhattan, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), The Dain Curse (1978) and NYPD Blue (1993). He was married to Marian Mercer. He died on 26 August 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Stunts
- Actor
- Special Effects
George P. Wilbur was born on 6 March 1941 in Kent, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor, known for The Perfect Storm (2000), Escape from New York (1981) and Die Hard (1988). He died on 1 February 2023 in the USA.