In case you’re keeping tally (or am I the only one?) of how many actors who have portrayed serial killer Michael Myers in the Halloween series of film that I’ve met, so far I’ve shared fourof them. The first two (Nick Castle and Will Sandin), who starred in the first film can be seen here. Dick Warlock (from the second film) and Tyler Mane from the Rob Zombie retool of the series can be seen here. That still leaves a smattering of actors who have starred in some of the lesser sequels in the series. And since bad things…or deaths…always come in threes, that’s how many I’ll be sharing today.
It should not surprise you that the first two were actors that I met at the Horrorhound Weekend in Indianapolis on November 17, 2012. This was the giant Halloween-themed reunion that actually featured Jamie Lee Curtis. It was likely that Jamie Lee and some of the other stars of the first film were getting the bulk of the spotlight because there was absolutely no wait to see these two.
After Halloween II, Jamie Lee Curtis took a break from the series for 17 years, before she was lured back to add a breath of fresh air to the advancing ‘storyline.’ Thus she had a starring role in the 1998 entry entitled Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, in which she reprised her character Laurie Strode. It had a lot of nice touches, making it the best of the series, barring the first film of course.
Since Horrorhound was gathering actors who had worked with Jamie in various film (not only Halloween), it was quite apropos that Chris Durand was invited as well, as he portrayed antagonist Michael Myers. His history as a stuntman has been pretty impressive thus far, having appeared in Scream 2, The Doors, Star Trek: Generations, and naturally, Mr. Belvedere. He had non-stunt roles the Buffy-spin off Angel and Dharma & Greg. He was a nice guy with a nice mask of Michael Myers that he would use in his photo ops. He said that it was not the mask that he wore in the film.
All good things come to an end, as Jamie Lee Curtis made her final Halloween appearnace in Halloween: Resurrection in 2002. Her character of Laurie is finally killed off by Michael Myers, this time being played by Brad Loree (seen in the photo at the top of the posting). Loree also was primarily a stunt actor and actor, having acted in such films as Timecop and Stargate SG-1, perfomed stunts in Get Carter and Mission to Mars, and was both an actor and stuntman in episodes of Smallville.
He also was quite friendly and offered a free photo of him with the autograph purchase. He was quite willing to pose for a strangulation shot with me, but he was so nice that he still couldn’t help smiling.
Bringing us up to date with my Michael Myers encounters is the final, and most current actor portraying him that I have met. For this one, we jump to the Hollywood Show on April 20, 2013.
There were three Halloween films (which I call ‘the middle Halloweens’) that came between the four Jamie Lee Curtis film (discounting the oddball Halloween III: Season of the Witch that didn’t feature Michael Myers at all): Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. These were probably the worst of the lot, but nevertheless, meeting the Michaels from these films were imperative as well.
Oddly, the same guy played Michael in the first and third of these, with a different guy coming in the middle. Well, he did perform some stunts in the fifth installment, and he only performed half of the stunts in the fourth one and another guy did the rest, but… it all gets convoluted. So I’m just going with the guy credited as Michael Myers.
In this case it was George P. Wilbur, a stunt man with a massive amount of film credits dating back to 1966. Among them were such notable films as Planet of the Apes, The Poseidon Adventure, Blazing Saddles, The Towering Inferno, Poltergeist, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the list goes on and on… Yes, this guy could write a fascinating book.
I was very happy to meet him, and even happier that he was also a super-nice guy. Like the others, he charged $20 and this included a free photo with him. He was happy to not only do the strangle-pose, but also pose for a picture with Carolyn as well. She was meeting her first Michael Myers, so the cycle may repeat itself at some point.
So now…if you are in fact keeping track, you’ll know that I still need three more gentlemen to complete my Michael Myers quest: Tony Moran (the unmasked Michael in the first film, Don Shanks from Part 5, and Daeg Farch, the child version of Michael from the Zombie re-tool. I know they’ve all been to celebrity shows, so I’m sure that at some point the quest will be complted.
Meeting this mad killer man may not be the healthiest endeavor, but it beats smoking the drugs.
Celebrity encounters of the 2012 Indianapolis Horrorhound Halloween reunion weekend will conclude in the next posting…
Celebrity encounters from the Spring 2013 Hollywood Show will continue…
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