Donald Pleasence

Alpes-Maritimes, France

Donald Henry Pleasence (; 5 October 1919 – 2 February 1995) was an English actor. He was known for his "bald head and intense, staring eyes," and played more than 250 stage, film, and television roles across a nearly 60-year career.

Pleasence began his career on stage in the West End before having a screen career, which included starring in a 1954 BBC adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, before playing numerous supporting and character roles, developing a reputation for playing "nervy, unstable characters" including Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe in The Great Escape (1963), the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967), SEN 5241 in THX 1138 (1971), and the deranged Clarence "Doc" Tydon in Wake in Fright (1971). He also maintained an acclaimed career on the Broadway stage.

Pleasence starred as psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis in Halloween (1978) and four of its sequels, a role for which he was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor. The series' popularity and critical success led to a resurgent career for Pleasence, who appeared in numerous American and European-produced horror and thriller films. He collaborated with Halloween director John Carpenter twice more, as the President of the United States in Escape from New York (1981) and as the Priest in Prince of Darkness (1987).

For his stage work, Pleasence won a Drama Desk Award and was nominated for four Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Play. He was appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his services to drama by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.

Early life

Pleasence was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, the son of Alice (née Armitage) and Thomas Stanley Pleasence, a railway station master. His grandfather was a railwayman who lived at Portland Place in Worksop, where Donald developed an interest in cricket.

He received his formal education at Crosby Junior School, known as Doncaster Road School, in Scunthorpe. He lived at 111 Frodingham Road for nine years. Aged seven he took part in his first play, in Scunthorpe called Passers By.

He was brought up as a strict Methodist in the small village of Grimoldby, Lincolnshire, from the age of nine. He was in the local Scouts, the 4th United Methodist in Louth. He produced the school Christmas concert, in Louth, in his early teens.

His father was the stationmaster at Grimoldby railway station for five years, on the Mablethorpe loop railway. His parents were in the temperance society, as they were Methodists, and his mother was in the Grimoldby and Manby WI.

By early 1934 he had moved from Lincolnshire, where his father had been the LNER stationmaster from around early 1929. His father was the stationmaster at Ecclesfield. His father would die aged 77 in around 1965, after moving to Teddington in the late 1950s.

He attended Ecclesfield Grammar School near Sheffield, which he said changed his life. Mr Clay was head of English, and with the headmaster, encouraged him, saying 'I owe virtually everything to them'. He developed his acting in Mr Clay's 'Wednesday Club' drama society. He has said that he was good at English but 'not much else'. Donald's father asked the headmaster to persuade his son to not choose to be an actor. A class friend Sam Hemingfield, would become a teacher, and later head of the sixth form at Ecclesfield School. Another friend was John Bertram, who would become a teacher, and head of English at Bradfield School.

For 18 months he worked as a booking clerk at Swinton railway station, with LNERLincolnshire Standard Friday 17 July 1964, page 5 and decided that he wanted to be a professional actor, taking up a placement with the Jersey Repertory Company in 1939. His first professional play at the Playhouse, in Jersey in July 1939 was as assistant stage manager with the Kent-Naismith Rep Company, where he played Hareton Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights.

Until 1941, he worked in repertory theatre. Until leaving rep, he had a rebellious nature, and often upset theatre directors and managers, leading to him being dismissed.

Second World War

In December 1939, Pleasence initially refused conscription into the British Armed Forces, registering as a conscientious objector, but changed his stance in autumn 1940, after the attacks upon London by the Luftwaffe, and volunteered with the Royal Air Force.

He served as aircraft wireless-operator with No. 166 Squadron in Bomber Command, with which he flew almost sixty raids against the Axis Powers over occupied Europe, from RAF Kirmington.

On 31 August 1944, his Lancaster NE112 was shot down during an attack on Agenville, France, and he was captured and imprisoned in the German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft I. He had been shot down on his 19th operation, bombing a V-1 flying bomb site.

Pleasence produced and acted in many plays for the entertainment of his fellow captives. In 1944 when Flt Lt Pleasence was shot down, his parents lived at 111 Bawtry Road in Tinsley, South Yorkshire, near the M1 today, where his father had retired. In 1955 he said that 'joining the RAF was almost like being posted home'. Ten days before VE day, he was liberated by the Russians. The camp had mostly Americans.

After the war and his release, he was discharged from the RAF in 1946 as a Flight lieutenant.

Years later, he used his experiences in POW camps in his role in The Great Escape. While filming the movie, Pleasence kindly offered advice to director John Sturges, to which he was politely asked to keep his "opinions" to himself. Later, when James Garner on set informed Sturges that Pleasence was actually imprisoned in a German POW camp, Sturges requested his technical advice and input on historical accuracy from that point forward.

Acting career

Returning to acting after the war, Pleasence resumed working in repertory theatre companies in Birmingham and Bristol.

His first production was The Brothers Karamazov, where he played the interrogator Mavriky, when one of the actors was ill at the Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith). It was his first 'unpleasant' acting role. He joined Birmingham Rep, where stayed for two years, then the Bristol Old Vic. He toured the US in 1950.

In the 1950s, Pleasence's stage work included performing as Willie Mossop in a 1952 production of Hobson's Choice at the Arts Theatre, London and as Dauphin in Jean Anouilh's The Lark (1956). In 1960, Pleasence gained excellent notices as the tramp in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at the Arts Theatre, a role he would again play in a 1990 revival. Other stage work in the 1960s included Anouilh's Poor Bitos (1963–64) and Robert Shaw's The Man in the Glass Booth (1967), for which he won the London Variety Award for Stage Actor of the Year in 1968. Pleasence's later stage work included performing in a double bill of Pinter plays, The Basement and Tea Party, at the Duchess Theatre in 1970.

Television

Pleasence made his television debut in I Want to Be a Doctor (1946).

Pleasence played Prince John in several episodes of the ITV series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1956–1958) starring Richard Greene in the title role. He appeared twice with Patrick McGoohan in the British spy series Danger Man, in episodes "Position of Trust" (1960) and "Find and Return" (1961). Pleasence's first appearance in the United States was in an episode of The Twilight Zone, playing an aging teacher at a boys' school in the episode "The Changing of the Guard" (1962). In 1963, he appeared in an episode of The Outer Limits titled "The Man with the Power". In 1966, he also guest starred in an episode of The Fugitive entitled "With Strings Attached".

In 1973, Pleasence played a sympathetic murderer in an episode of Columbo entitled "Any Old Port in a Storm". Also that year, he played a supporting role in David Winters' musical television adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

He also portrayed a murderer captured by Mrs. Columbo in "Murder Is a Parlor Game" (1979). In 1978, he played a scout, Sam Purchas in an adaptation of James A. Michener's Centennial. Pleasence starred as the Reverend Septimus Harding in the BBC's TV series The Barchester Chronicles (1982). In this series, his daughter Angela Pleasence played his onscreen daughter Susan.

He hosted the 1981 Halloween episode of Saturday Night Live with music guest Fear.

In 1986, Pleasence joined Ronald Lacey and Polly Jo Pleasence for the television thriller Into the Darkness.

Pleasence and Michael Nader portrayed the villains in 1988's The Great Escape II: The Untold Story, which costar Christopher Reeve explained as not being a remake of the 1963 original film and being based on Paul Brickhill's non-fiction account The Great Escape. Noting his involvement in the original film, Joan Hanauer wrote that Pleasence had "graduated to an S.S. villain, and he is a marvel of soft-spoken, almost finicky evil."

Film

Pleasence made his big-screen debut with The Beachcomber (1954).

Characterised by a bald head, a penetrating stare, and an intense voice, usually quiet but capable of a piercing scream, he specialised in portraying insane, fanatical, or evil characters, including the title role in Dr Crippen (1962), the frontier prophet Oracle Jones in Hallelujah Trail, the double agent Dr Michaels in the science-fiction film Fantastic Voyage (1966), the white trader who sells guns to the Cheyenne Indians in the revisionist western Soldier Blue (1970), the mad German psychoanalyst with Bud Spencer–Terence Hill in Watch Out, We're Mad! (1974), Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler in The Eagle Has Landed (1976), and the Bond arch-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in You Only Live Twice (1967), the first film in which Blofeld's face is clearly seen. His interpretation of the character has become predominant in popular culture considering the popularity of the comic villain, Dr. Evil in the successful Austin Powers film series, which primarily parodies it. In the crime drama Hell is a City (1960), shot in Manchester, he starred opposite Stanley Baker, while he was memorably cast in the horror comedy What a Carve Up! (1961) as the "horrible-looking zombie" solicitor opposite Shirley Eaton, Sid James, Kenneth Connor and Dennis Price.

He appeared as the mild-mannered and good-natured POW forger Colin Blythe in the film The Great Escape (1963), who discovers that he is slowly going blind, but nonetheless participates in the mass break-out, only to be shot down by German soldiers because he is unable to see them. Variety highlighted Pleasence and Richard Attenborough as giving some of the better performances in the film, Pleasence specifically being praised for having the most moving portrayal and depicting "the film's most touching character."

Pleasence played Lucifer in the religious epic The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). He was one of many stars who were given cameos throughout the film. He also acted in Roman Polanski's Cul-de-sac (1966), in which he portrayed the love-sodden husband of a much younger French wife (Françoise Dorléac). He ventured successfully into American cowboy territory, playing a sadistic self-styled preacher who goes after stoic Charlton Heston in the Western Will Penny (1968).

In The Night of the Generals (1967), Pleasence played, as he did in The Great Escape, an uncharacteristically sympathetic role - this time, as an old-school German general involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.

Pleasence was the original choice of Michael Reeves for the title role of the folk horror film Witchfinder General (a.k.a. The Conqueror Worm, 1968) but once American International Pictures became involved in the production, they insisted that their contract star, Vincent Price, be given the lead, and Pleasence was dropped from the film.

In 1971, Pleasence delivered a tour de force performance in the role of an alcoholic Australian doctor in Ted Kotcheff's nightmarish outback drama Wake in Fright. A lost film for many decades, Wake in Fright is now considered a pivotal film of both the Australian New Wave and the Ozploitation cycle, earning praise from contemporary critics for Kotcheff's direction and the cast's performances.

Pleasence portrayed SEN 5241 in THX 1138 (1971), opposite Robert Duvall which was the directorial debut of George Lucas. The next year he appeared as an eccentric, tea-obsessed police inspector in the cult horror film Death Line alongside Norman Rossington and Christopher Lee. A few years later, he portrayed antagonist Lucas Deranian, in Walt Disney's Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) and, in Telefon (1977), Nicolai Dalchimsky, the Russian seeking to start a war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Pleasence appeared as Dr. Samuel Loomis in John Carpenter's horror film Halloween (1978). The film was a major success and was considered the highest grossing independent film of its time, earning accolades as a classic of the horror genre. He also played the teacher, Kantorek in All Quiet on the Western Front (1979), Dr. Kobras in The Pumaman (1980) and the held-hostage President of the United States in Escape from New York (1981). The rather sinister accent which Pleasence employed in this and other films may be credited to the elocution lessons he had as a child. He reprised his Dr. Sam Loomis role in Halloween II (1981), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995).

Pleasence, Daria Nicolodi, and Jennifer Connelly starred in Dario Argento's Phenomena (1985), where Pleasence portrayed a wheelchair-using forensic entomologist. Although Austin Trunick of Under the Radar criticized Connelly for not being an active heroine, he cited "a lot of nice interaction between Connelly and Pleasence's eccentric character" as a positive tradeoff. Later that year, Pleasence played a retiring inspector who investigates the disappearance of the sister of Tom Schanley's character in Nothing Underneath. JA Kerswell called Pleasence's role "clichéd" for the actor while also praising his presence as "a welcome bonus." The reviewer from Horror Society wrote of liking Schanley and Pleasence "but the story is the main focus here and not the cast which is a bit of a shame because both did fantastic jobs." Operation Nam was Pleasence's sole film appearance in 1986, playing "a minor part as a priest" who services Vietnam soldiers.

Pleasence collaborated with Carpenter again when he starred in Prince of Darkness (1987), where he played a priest who seeks the aid of a professor and a few of the latter's quantum physics students to uncover the mystery of a glowing liquid in a canister. Though mixed about the film, Starburst praised Pleasence's performance, admitting that to them, "there are very few sights in genre cinema as marvelous as seeing Pleasence delivering an intense, slightly erratic monologue, and he gets plenty to sink his teeth into here." Megan Summers asserted that Pleasence brought "his standard emotional prowess and psychological stability to his role" in the film, and Michael Wilmington declared Pleasence and Victor Wong as "both fine; these two know how to make the most of shallow excess."

In 1988, Pleasence played a priest in the Italian horror film Vampire in Venice (a.k.a. Nosferatu in Venice), a quasi-sequel to Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979).

Pleasence admired Sir Laurence Olivier, with whom he worked on-stage in the 1950s, and later on the film version of Dracula (1979). Two years earlier, Pleasence did an amusingly broad impersonation of Olivier in the guise of a horror-film actor called "Valentine De'ath" in the film The Uncanny (1977). According to the film critic Kim Newman on a DVD commentary for Halloween II, the reason for Pleasence's lengthy filmography was that he never turned down any role that was offered.

Spoken records and voice-overs

During the early 1960s, Pleasence recorded several children's-story records on the Atlas Record label. These were marketed as the Talespinners series in the United Kingdom. They were also released in the United States as Tale Spinners for Children by United Artists. The stories included Don Quixote and the Brave Little Tailor. He also wrote, directed and narrated Scouse the Mouse in 1977.

Pleasence provided the voice-over for the British public information film, The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water (1973). The film, intended to warn children of the dangers of playing near water, attained notoriety for allegedly giving children nightmares.

Books

Pleasence was the author of the children's book Scouse the Mouse (1977) (London: New English Library), which was animated by Canadian animator/film director Gerald Potterton (a friend of the actor, who directed him in the Canadian film The Rainbow Boys (1973), retitled The Rainbow Gang for VHS release in the United States) and also adapted into a children's recording (Polydor Records, 1977) with Ringo Starr voicing the book's title character, Scouse the Mouse.

In his book British Film Character Actors (1982), Terence Pettigrew describes Pleasence as "a potent combination of eyes and voice. The eyes are mournful but they can also be sinister or seedy or just plain nutty. He has the kind of piercing stare which lifts enamel off saucepans."

Honours

Pleasence was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to the acting profession by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.

Personal life

Pleasence married four times and had five daughters from his first three marriages. He had Angela and Jean with Miriam Raymond (m. 1941–1958); Lucy and Polly with Josephine Martin Crombie (m. 1959–1970); and Miranda with Meira Shore (m. 1970–1988). His last marriage was to Linda Kentwood (m. 1988–1995; his death).

In the late 1970s, he lived near the eastern side of Kew Bridge. In the early 1960s his brother Ralph was stationmaster at Smeeth Road railway station. Ralph had retired to Lincoln in the 1970s.

He lived in the south of France for a number of years, up until his death.

Death

On 2 February 1995, Pleasence died at age 75 at his home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, from complications of heart failure following heart valve replacement surgery. His body was cremated.

Legacy

The 1995 film Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was dedicated to Donald Pleasence. The 1998 film Halloween H20: 20 Years Later also features a dedication to Pleasence in the end credits, with voice actor Tom Kane providing a voice-over for Loomis in the film. In the 2018 film, Halloween, comedian Colin Mahan voiced Loomis. In the 2021 film Halloween Kills Tom Jones, Jr. played Loomis, wearing prosthetic make-up to resemble Pleasence. Loomis' voice was again provided by Mahan.

Dr. Evil, the character played by Mike Myers in the Austin Powers comedy films (1997–2002), and Doctor Claw from Inspector Gadget are parodies of Pleasence's performance as Blofeld in You Only Live Twice.

Filmography

Film

Television

TV series

TV films and miniseries

2002 Halloween Resurrection Dr. Sam Loomis (archive footage, uncredited)

2021 Halloween Kills Dr. Sam Loomis (.[Prosthetic makeup was used to make Jones facially resemble Donald Pleasence)

Bibliography

Awards and nominations

References

References

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