As some previous postings have mentioned, a recent Horrorhound Weekend show in Indianapolis was comprised mostly of actors and actresses from the Halloween franchise – which all centered around the appearance of Jamie Lee Curtis at the show. I attended on Saturday, November 17, 2012, and was happy to take advantage of meeting the bulk of those present. You’ve already seen the postings on Jamie Lee herself, as well as two of the actors who portrayed the original killer Michael Myers. This posting will feature three of the performers who had starred in the original 1978 classic Halloween film.
First up is the former child actor Brian Andrews (as seen at the top of the posting). He played Tommy Doyle, one of the kids whom Laurie Strode (Curtis) was babysitting as the whole Michael Myers debacle inched its way toward a murder-spree catharsis. Brian didn’t do a whole lot of acting after Halloween, although he had a pretty significant role in The Great Santini and retired after a miniscule role in Three O’Clock High. He was a quiet, but nice enough guy when I met him, happily posing for free and fulfilling my photo inscription request.
Next we have Charles Cyphers, who portrayed Sheriff Leigh Brackett in both the first Halloween film and its immediate sequel Halloween II. Cyphers worked with director John Carpenter in Elvis, The Fog, and Escape from New York. It was hard to reconcile this actor as the one from Halloween, as he was nearly unrecognizable behind his white beard and slightly gruff exterior (whereas I always thought he resembled Paul Lynde in the Halloween films).
He was slightly more expensive than most of the other actors present, charging $25 for the autograph, but posing for the somewhat awkward photo for free. I had asked him to write his line of dialogue, “It’s Halloween. I guess everyone is entitled to one good scare.” He asked me if he could shorten it to “Have 1 good scare.” I acquiesced. After all, he was the sheriff.
Moving right along… the final of the three encounters of the day was by far the most frustrating. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to why the line for Nancy Stephens was unimaginably long and slow…but she was the last one on my list, and although it was tempting to leave without getting her, I’m glad I stuck it out for well over an hour. She did take time to chat with anyone who wanted to talk, which can be both good and bad…
Her claim to fame role as Nurse Marion Chambers in Halloween and Halloween II… and then a final reprise of her role in Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later wasn’t quite large enough to merit so much attention, but she might be considered somewhat iconic as the first person whom the killer Michael Myers attacks upon his escape from the institution.
Her list of credits isn’t all that massive, but she did appear in a few of my favorite TV series over the years: All in the Family, Cheers, and Picket Fences, among many other appearances.
When I had her sign her character name on her photo, I alluded to the Psycho reference (Marion being the name of Janet Leigh’s character, Chambers being the name of the sheriff in the film). Amazingly, she told me that she had never heard that before, but that it didn’t surprise her since John Carpenter was a huge Hitchcock fan. She rewarded me with another piece of interesting trivia: that she had starred in the only film in which a U.S. President’s son had portrayed a Secret Service agent. This was Escape from New York, and the actor was Steven Ford, son of President Gerald R. Ford.
It was really cool to meet these mostly obscure actors. The organizers of this event really pulled out all the stops in gathering a very impressive group of actors from the Halloween franchise.
Celebrity encounters of the 2012 Indianapolis Horrorhound Halloween reunion weekend will continue…
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