Continuing the theme of Halloween (for Halloween), I present to you two of the actors who portrayed the killer Michael Myers in the film franchise. Both of these encounters took place at the Flashback Weekend show in Chicago on Sunday, August 12, 2012. For portraying the same character on film, these guys are about as different as you can get in real life. The first one (above left) is Dick Warlock, who had acted as the mad killer in Halloween II in 1981.
Dick is now a 72-year old man with an illustrious career as a stuntman, stunt coordinator, and occasional actor behind him. Interestingly, in addition to playing ‘the shape’ in the second Halloween film, he also appears without the mask as a patrolman. And what’s more, he actually has a bit part in Halloween III: Season of the Witch (which had no relation to the Michael Myers story) as well.
He might also be spotted in bit roles such films and TV shows as The Nude Bomb, Magnum P.I., The Abyss, Casino, and Spider-Man. He also worked as stunt coordinator on Casino, Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning, and as a driving stunt coordinator on The Love Bug.
He was at the show with his wife and was a very friendly guy, although they refused my 2/$30 offer so that I might get an extra photo of him outside the mask. Oh well, I was happy with my bloody-eyed photo from Halloween II and the free photo op that came with it.
A few tables over was 45-year old former professional wrestler Tyler Mane. Although I didn’t recall his wrestling career, he had actually been part of the WCW on two separate occasions, using the monikers Skywalker Nitron and Big Sky. Under the latter name, he partnered with Vinnie Vegas, better known now as Kevin Nash.
At 6’9″, he is by far the tallest actor to portray Michael Myers, and has done so in both of the Rob Zombie Halloween re-tools – making him also the most recent actor to portray him. He was at the show with his wife Renae Geerlings, who had starred in the re-tool Halloween II as Deputy Gwynne. They were both very nice as they told me how she came to get the job in the second film, and how she and Tyler had actually met at the Wizard World Comic Con when she was there as an editor of Top Cow comics and he was there signing autographs.
He was $25, and that also included a photo with him, which his wife actually took, conscientious enough to be concerned with the glare from the flash on the photo (so we took another). Tyler himself was also extraordinarily friendly, despite the scowl on his face in the photo.
Unrelated to my encounter with him, was a funny one that someone else was having as I waited my turn in line. A fan had brought a Rob Zombie Halloween II poster for his friend to get it signed by Renae and it was chock full of signatures from the actors and even Zombie himself. As they looked at, they realized that Tyler had not yet signed it yet, but the fan didn’t have authorization from his friend to pay for Tyler’s signature, so he actually had to leave to call him. Imagine sending a poster of Halloween II all that way, and then bypassing the actor who had played Michael Myers. Odd. I didn’t stick around to see how it turned out.
Celebrities of the 2012 Flashback Weekend will continue…
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