The British-born actress, Barbara Steele, became a star in Italy in the 60s, working with directors from Riccardo Freda to Mario Bava to Federico Fellini. One of Steele’s defining roles was in Bava’s 1960 film, Black Sunday.
In this scene, Steele’s witch is sentenced to be executed and, since this is a Bava film, it won’t be a quick execution. What makes this scene stand-out is Steele’s defiance. It’s hard not to admire her refusal to give those judging her what they want. You watch this scene and you have no doubt that if you get cursed by Barbara Steele, it’s going to be a curse for life.
Sissy Spacek hasn’t appeared in many horror movies but the one in which she did appear is such a classic and Spacek’s performance was so strong that she qualifies as a horror icon regardless. In 1976, Sissy Space played poor and victimized Carrie White, the shy high school student who ended up burning down the prom. Her performance became one of the few horror performances to be Oscar-nominated and Carrie launched a series of Stephen King adaptations.
In one of the best scene from the film, Carrie is forced to deal with both an insensitive principal and a brat on a bicycle.
The Italian writer/actor passed away earlier this year, on April 23rd. He is missed, both for his wit and charm and for his talent. He was great storyteller and always had the best anecdotes to share about the films in which he appeared, even though he himself often expressed amazement that people were still watching his movies. Giovanni Lombardo Radice was an artist and a gentleman.
I’ve shared this scene before but I’m going to share it again because it’s Giovanni at his best. Giovanni, incidentally, is dancing with his frequent co-star and friend, Lorraine de Selle.
The 80s scream queen who brought an uninhibited attitude and an often underrated wit to countless horror films, Linnea Quigley is a true icon of horror. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find any scenes of Linnea Quigley that are safe to share on this site. Most of them have been slapped with age restrictions on YouTube, for obvious reasons.
Still, I did find this scene from 1984’s Return of the Living Dead, in which Quigley’s Trash talks about her love of cemeteries. It’s a short scene, have no doubt. But it shows everything that has made Linnea Quigley such a popular figure amongst horror fans. Plus, I used to be the same way about cemeteries!
Donald Pleasence was born in the UK in 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 inHalloween, 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.
Born in Missouri and blessed with both an aristocratic profile and a resonant voice, Vincent Price started his career as a romantic leading man before eventually before finding more success a character actor. Starting in the late 40s and continuing until his death in 1993, Price was a beloved horror icon, bringing his witty presence to several different horror films.
Price always cites Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations as being amongst his favorite of the horror films in which he appeared. In this scene from 1964’s The Masque of the Red Death, Vincent Price delivers a monologue on the meaning of terror as only he could.
Anthony Perkins did not start his career as a horror icon. A talented young actor, Perkins started his career on Broadway and eventually, he started to appear in films. From the start, he was usually cast as nervous young men, the type who awkwardly smiled and struggled to talk to people. Perkins was promoted as a romantic lead, with the Studios and his agents making sure that Perkins was regularly photographed dating Hollywood starlets like Natalie Wood. As witty off-screen as he was nervous on-screen, Perkins was a popular figure in Hollywood. He received his only Oscar nomination for his performance as a young Quaker in 1956’s Friendly Persuasion.
Perkins’s entire career changed when Alfred Hitchcock cast him as the seemingly timid motel owner in 1960’s Psycho. Perkins was reportedly Hitchcock’s first choice for the role, with Hitchcock saying that he felt only Perkins or Dean Stockwell was capable of bringing Norman to life. Perkins was not nominated for Best Actor but the role pretty much defined him in the eyes of many. Perkins spent the rest of his career trying to first escape the shadow of Psycho and then eventually embracing his status as an icon of horror.
Perkins’s performance has been imitated so many times that there’s a tendency to forget just how good he is in the role. In this episode, Perkins-as-Norman discusses his mother with Janet Leigh.
Born in Florence, the outspoken Daria Nicolodi had already appeared in a quite a few films before Dario Argento cast her as the female lead in 1975’s Deep Red. Nicolodi would spend the rest of her career being closely associated with Argento, both as Dario’s partner and as the mother of Asia Argento. Dario and Daria had a notoriously volatile relationship. While one can sense Argento falling in love with Nicolodi while watching the way he films her in Deep Red, she is noticeable in her absence from Suspiriadespite the fact that she is generally acknowledged as being the one who came up with the idea of the film. (Angered that, despite the collaborative nature of their partnership, Argento did not offer her the lead role in Suspiria and instead offered a supporting role that Nicolodi felt was not particularly interesting, she instead accepted an offer from Mario Bava and gave what is generally considered to be her best performance in Shock.) She appeared in Dario’s subsequent films, through Opera. She eventually split with Argento and continued her film career, playing Asia’s mother in Scarlet Diva. Daria Nicolodi also became a popular and witty interview subject, one who was always good for a few shocking quips. While Daria could be very critical of Dario in those interviews, she was also often the quickest to defend his talent as a director.
Daria Nicolodi appeared in a lot of horrifying scene but today, I want share this rathe gentle scene from Deep Red, in which Daria’s journalist playfully challenges David Hemmings to a little arm-wrestling. It is scenes like this that make Deep Red one of the greatest examples of the giallo genre.
Today’s actor really needs no introduction. While Jack Nicholson started his career as a part of the Roger Corman stock company and appeared in the original Little Shop of Horrors while also being strongly considered for the role of Guy Woodhouse in Rosemary’s Baby, Nicholson has not appeared in many horror movies.
But the horror movie in which he did appear is such a classic that it’s made Nicholson a horror icon, even if he didn’t appear in as many horror films as a Christopher Lee or a Boris Karloff.
In this scene from 1980’s The Shining, Nicholson’s Jack Torrance has a drink with a ghost. Nicholson does a wonderful job in this scene, especially when he’s playing off the wonderfully sinister Joe Turkel.
A true scene stealer, the character actor Dick Miller was a Navy veteran who went to City College of New York, Columbia University, and New York University and eventually earned a Phd in psychology. Even as Miller was earning his degree, he was already appearing on stage. In 1952, he moved to California to pursue a career as a writer and ended up becoming one of the most beloved members of Roger Corman’s stock company. Famously, in 1952’s Apache Woman, he played both a Native American and the townsperson who shot him.
The many directors who started their careers under Roger Corman continued to cast Dick Miller in their own films, keeping Miller busy as a character actor. Miller worked with everyone from Martin Scorsese to Joe Dante to James Cameron to Steven Spielberg to Jim Wynorski. Miller often played characters named Walter Paisley, a reference to his first starring role in Corman’s A Bucket of Blood.
In this scene from 1981’s The Howling, Dick Miller lets us know what’s truly going on with the werewolves.
Through the Shattered Lens 