Archive for the ‘Happy Horror Hall of Fame’ Category:
Today, we induct one of my personal heroes and an all-time favorite actor of mine. He’s one of the most famous classic actors of yesteryear, and a true Renaissance man, and it’s my honor and pleasure to induct him to the Happy Horror Hall of Fame: Mr. Vincent Price!
Born May 27, 1911 in St. Louis, Missouri, Vincent Price traveled through Europe, went to Yale and later became an actor, writer and gourmet. He became mostly known for his horror film roles, but he also showed a knack for comedic and dramatic roles. He was also an art collector and expert, eventually donating several pieces from his own collection to start the Vincent Price Gallery and Art Foundation at East Los Angeles Community College in the early 1960s, as well as starting the Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art through Sears & Roebuck between 1962 to 1971 in an effort to make artwork from major artists available to the general public.
Some of his most notable films include the original House of Wax and House on Haunted Hill, The Last Man on Earth (the first of three adaptations of Richard Matheson’s book I Am Legend), several Edgar Allen Poe adaptations (including The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, and The Masque of the Red Death, among others), The Fly, The Invisible Man Returns, The Abominable Dr. Phibes and its sequel, and The Ten Commandments. Notable television roles included Egghead on the Adam West/Burt Ward Batman series (where he is said to have started an eggfight on the set after a take was over) and Vincent Van Ghoul on The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.
The end of the 1980s signalled the end of Mr. Price’s career, sadly. His health decreased through 1990, which saw his last movie role, as the creator of Edward Scissorhands. Three years later, he passed away from lung cancer and emphysema due to his lifelong smoking habit. He left behind quite a legacy, as you can see. And so, it is with great pride that I induct Vincent Price to the hallowed halls of the Happy Horror Hall of Fame. Over the next few days, you’ll see a few examples of his acting career on our site. I hope you enjoy them. Take care, everyone, and this is Red Hawk signing out!
Greetings, Happy Horror fans! Today, we gather to induct a new face into the Happy Horror Hall of Fame, a true icon of the horror genre. He’s created several iconic characters including Horace Pinker, Ghostface, and Fred Krueger. Today, we are happy and honored to induct Mr. Wes Craven to the esteemed Hall of Fame.
Mr. Craven was born in 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio to Baptist parents. He briefly taught English and Humanities before he first started his long career in film. During his boyhood, an experience with a strange man on the street later influenced his creation of Freddy Krueger. He looked out the window one night and saw this man walking up the sidewalk wearing a sweater similar to how Freddy’s would be. The man stopped and turned and looked at young Wes’s house and scared him, so he got away from the window really fast. A while later, he decided to look out the window again and found the man still standing there watching the house. Scared now, he ran and woke his brother up and they both went to look out and found the man right at their window, looking in at them.
Mr. Craven has gone on to create several classic horror films. His first, The Last House on the Left, was created in 1972, followed in 1977 by the crazed cannibal film The Hills Have Eyes. In 1982, he directed the big screen adaptation of Swamp Thing, followed in 1984 by what would be one of his most famous creations, A Nightmare on Elm Street. The next year would see the TV film Chiller (with Repo! The Genetic Opera’s Paul Sorvino) and The Hills Have Eyes Part II. In 1987, he produced what was intended to be the final Freddy movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. The years 1988-1992 saw a string of projects, with The Serpent and the Rainbow, Shocker, Night Visions, The People Under the Stairs and the television series Nightmare Cafe coming out during the time. 1994 saw him writing, directing and producing Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, which introduced the idea of Freddy being more than just a movie character. He also directed all three films in the Scream trilogy, and has been rumored to be linked to Scream 4. In 2005, he filmed both werewolf film Cursed and airplane suspense film Red Eye.
Mr. Craven’s been a very prolific director and producer, and it’s with great pride that I hereby induct him into our website’s Hall of Fame.
Tune in all this week as I bring you reviews of some of his noted (and maybe one not-so-noted) films. Take care, everyone, and this is Red Hawk signing out!
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another induction to the Happy Horror Hall of Fame. Tonight’s induction is no less than one of the truly great men of the horror genre, the actor who portrayed one of the three patron saints of modern day horror films, the one, the only Robert Englund!
Born in Glendale, California on June 6, 1947, the son of an engineer who helped create the Lockheed U-2 aircraft, Mr. Englund is a classically trained actor of Swedish descent. After his acting education (starting at age 12, no less), he debuted in the 1974 film Buster and Billie as the character of Whitey, Buster’s best friend. Over the next ten years, he acted in 39 movies and television shows, including 1977’s Eaten Alive (with the Addams Family’s Carolyn Jones), 1981’s Dead & Buried and Galaxy of Terror, and 1983’s V (and it’s follow-up movie and television series). In 1984, Mr. Englund’s already impressive career broke out in a big way with his debut as Frederick Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street. The next year, he reprised his role in A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge, which was followed by several more sequels. His career took him to other corners of the horror genre besides as Freddy, of course. He also starred as the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera (which I just reviewed last Monday), he made an uncredited cameo in C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud, and starred in Danse Macabre.
The 1990s brought a spinoff of the Nightmare series, a television series called Freddy’s Nightmares. I never got a chance to see the show, myself (never got the channel it was on when it was on), but I’ve heard good things about it. Most of his roles throughout the early 1990s seemed to center around the horror genre: Night Terrors, where he played the Marquis de Sade; The Mangler, where he played the owner of the laundry where the titular Mangler was kept, Bill Gartley; The Vampyre Wars; and many others. I believe it was during the early 1990s that the Shadow Theater series he hosted aired. This series, more than anything else, more likely molded me into the horror movie fan I am today.
It is because of this that I’m very honored to induct Mr. Englund into the Happy Horror Hall of Fame. To me, he is one of my personal heroes and one of the best actors of my time. And so, when I see a new Robert Englund film, either starring or directed by him, I know that I’ll enjoy it immensely. Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out.
Welcome, friends, to another edition of the Happy Horror Hall of Fame. I am your host, Red Hawk, and it pleases me to bring you another legendary figure of the horror field, the Candyman himself, Tony Todd!
Born Timothy Henry Todd in Washington, D.C., Mr. Todd started out his career on the stage, after going to college for two years at the University of Connecticut and the Eugene O’Neill National Theatre Institute. Not only an actor, he also taught playwriting to high school students. In 1986, he made his film debut in Sleepwalk, a film that, according to the Internet Movie Database, is about an ancient Chinese manuscript that starts taking over the life of the woman translating it. Also during the 1980s, he played in Platoon as Sgt. Warren, Colors, and Lean on Me, as well as guest spots on Night Court, 21 Jump Street and MacGyver.
During the 1990s, Mr. Todd started making his entrance into the horror genre, with films like Voodoo Dawn and Night of the Living Dead in 1990, as well as a guest stint on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Klingon Worf’s brother Kurn. In 1992, he starred in what seems to have been his most famous role, Candyman, which led to two sequels: Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, and Candyman: Day of the Dead. Following Candyman and Candyman 2, Tony Todd played in two films with the word Master in them… Beastmaster: The Eye of Braxus and Wes Craven’s Wishmaster. In 1999, in addition to Candyman 3, he also provided FMV narration to Sony’s hit video game Legend of Dragoon.
The year 2000 saw him making a cameo appearance in Final Destination as William Bludworth, the mortician who seems to know more than he should about Death’s workings, a role that he carried on into Final Destination 2. In Final Destination 3, the Bludworth character doesn’t appear, but you can hear Mr. Todd’s voice at the beginning and end of the film: once, as the voice of the Demon outside the doomed roller coaster, and once as the conductor’s voice on the subway at the end. He also put in guest appearances on Angel, Smallville, Crossing Jordan and Andromeda. In 2003, he both played Caleb Kilgore in Scarecrow Slayer, the second film in the Scarecrow trilogy, but also acted as associate producer. In 2006, he did his voice stint in Final Destination 3, played the duel roles of Jekyll and Hyde in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and played Reverend Zombie in Hatchet, a role he’s rumored to be reprising for Hatchet 2. Recently, he’s played in The Graves and The Thirst: Blood War, as well as having a recurring role on NBC’s spy spoof Chuck as CIA Director Graham.
What does the future hold for Mr. Todd? Well, according to the IMDb, he has no less than nine films lined up for this year and next, including Nite Tales: The Movie, Vampire in Vegas, Black Friday, Escape of the Living Dead, (possibly) Hatchet 2, and 2001 Maniacs: Beverly Hellbillys, and let me assure you, I’m looking forward to all of them! And so, it is with great honor that I induct Mr. Todd into the hallowed halls of the Happy Horror Hall of Fame, for everything he’s done in, and for, the horror genre. I salute you, Mr. Todd, and wish all the luck in the world on your career. And so, until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!
Today, we open the dusty halls of the Happy Horror Hall of Fame to a new inductee, and what an inductee he is. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, monsters and madmen, I present to you the man, the myth, the master of the low budget film, Roger Corman!
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Mr. Corman has had a long, distinguished career in the movie industry. He’s helped start the careers of such legendary directors as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppolla, Ron Howard, Joe Dante, and James Cameron, and that’s just a handful of the names I could mention. His film directing career has spanned over 50 films, with over 300 films produced.
Mr. Corman started life as the son of Anne and William Corman in Detroit, Michigan in 1926. After receiving an industrial engineering degree from Stanford University, Corman became a producer and screenwriter in 1953, with directing soon to follow in 1955. One of the first films he directed was Swamp Women, aka Swamp Diamonds (the title under which the guys on Mystery Science Theater 3000 showed it). Other notable films are The Day the World Ended, It Conquered the World, Not of This Earth, Attack of the Crab Monsters, The Undead, Teenage Caveman, a series of films based off of the works of Edgar Allen Poe, Gas-s-s-s, and the last film he’s directed, 1990’s Frankenstein Unbound. On the production side of things, a small sampling of his films include Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, Death Race 2000, Raptor, the Carnosaur series, and the recent Death Race remake.
This man clearly deserves a place of honor here at the Happy Horror Hall of Fame, and it is an honor to induct him here today. I’ll continue to bring you more of his films as the months go past, and I hope that this will inspire you to go out and search for more of his work. Tomorrow, I’ll be bringing you something unrelated to Mr. Corman or next week’s featured horror personality, so be sure to keep your eyes on the site! And so, as always, until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!
