On Sunday, horror fans mourned the death of Gunnar Hansen, the actor who personified one of the all-time great horror characters, Leatherface, when he died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Maine on Saturday November 7th 2015 at the age of 68.
Tobe Hooper‘s low-budget cult film has become the stuff of legend, not just because of what happened on screen, but also on the set. Based on the real-life exploits of mass-murderer Ed Gein, who also inspired Robert Bloch’s PSYCHO and his own story was made into a film, ED GEIN, starring Steve (THE STUNTMAN, LIFEFORCE) Ralisback, THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE achieved immediate notoriety and was banned from cinema and video release until 1999 in the UK.
One of its producers, Ron Bozman, worked later on the Oscar-winning film THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, featuring the similarly natured character of Hannibal Lecter.
40 years after the film’s release, it still makes the top ten list (mine included) and has helped to define a genre, as well as influence a whole load of movies, among them HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER. It spawned three sequels and a remake. The third film, LEATHERFACE, brought Viggo Mortensen to the fore and the fourth film, THE NEXT GENERATION, is notable for starring Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger before they bowed as big stars (though they don’t really like to bring it up on their respective CVs)
With the film’s main female star, Marilyn Burns, also gone from this earth, another horror icon says farewell. Check out the film on Blu-Ray and DVD and see why Hansen made Leatherface such a terrifying presence.
