Donald Pleasence was born in the UK on October 5th, 1919, the son of a railway station manager.  Pleasence briefly tried to follow in his father’s footsteps before, at the age of 20, realizing that he would much rather be a professional actor.  With his intense demeanor, Pleasence soon became an in-demand character actor and remained one for the rest of his life, only taking a break from acting when he served in World War II.  (A devout Methodist, Pleasence originally registered as a conscientious objector but changed his stance once the Blitz began.)   When he was taken prisoners by the Germans and sent to a POW camp, he organized plays among his fellow prisoners as a way to keep everyone’s spirits up as they waited for the war to end.

Pleasence’s experience as a POW led to him being cast in The Great Escape.  His ability to play villains led to him being cast as the original Blofeld in You Only Live Twice.  He appeared in classic horror films like Death Line and Wake In Fright.  In 1978, he was offered the role of Dr. Loomis in Halloween, after it had been turned down by both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.  Pleasence played Loomis with a righteous intensity that seemed to grow a bit more unhinged with each subsequent sequel.  Though he was, by his own admission, not a huge fan of the genre, Pleasence became a horror icon to a whole new generation of film goers.

1998’s Halloween 4 does not have a great reputation but it does have one of my favorite Loomis scenes.  In this scene, a hitchhiking Dr. Loomis is picked up by an old man (Carmen Filipi) who is on a mission of his own.  It’s hard not to regret that these two didn’t get their own spin-off.