Friday, March 4, 2011

Happy Birthday to the original Leatherface, Gunnar Hansen!

64 years ago, on March 4, 1947, the man who would be Leatherface was born.



Born in Reykjavik, Iceland, Gunnar moved with his family to the US, first to Maine, then fittingly enough to San Antonio and then Austin, Texas, where he attended high school and then the University of Texas, at first majoring in physics before switching to English and mathematics. Then, after attending graduate school, he assayed the role of the crossdressing, hammer swinging, buzzsaw maestro Leatherface on Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in the summer of 1973. The rest is horror history.

He then worked for many years writing (and occasionally editing) for magazines and from there moved to film and book writing, as well as performing in dozens of films since Chainsaw. Nowadays, he stays busy with the occasional film role when not attending myriad horror conventions, where he is always one of the most gracious guests to his fans.

Happy Birthday, Big Man!

1 comment:

krisenthia said...

Happy Bday Gunnar!
I should post my pics of the TCM house which is now a great restaurant called the Junction House in Kingsland, TX. They have Gunnar's commentary the making of the movie/the history of the house continually playing upstairs :)