Robert Englund

Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 78th birthday to actor Robert Englund.

Englund will forever be identified with the horror genre and Freddy Krueger.  That said, before he first played Krueger in the first Nightmare on Elm Street, he was a busy character actor who appeared in roles both big and small.  He was considered for Star Wars.  He even played some sympathetic characters!

Of course, he’s not particularly sympathetic in today’s scene that I love.  Here he is in 1975’s Hustle, bringing his intense style to the small role of a thief who pulls a gun on Burt Reynolds.  This scene stands out for both Englund’s menace and Reynolds’s trademark cool.  Of course, if you’ve seen the film, you know what this scene is going to lead to.  The 70s were a dark time!