Character actor Sid Haig passes away at the age of 80. A veteran performer with over 140 credits to his name, Haig gained fame late in life as a horror movie star, appearing as Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects.
Early on, Haig cut his acting teeth as a prolific TV performer, appearing on everything from Star Trek: TOS to The Flying Nun to Gunsmoke to Mission: Impossible. Haig’s early film credits included the Joe Namath B-movie vehicle C.C. & Company, George Lucas’ sci-fi classic THX 1138 and the blaxsploitation films Coffey, Foxy Brown and Black Mama, White Mama. Haig’s roles in the latter three films inspired Quentin Tarantino to cast him in his own blaxsploitation homage, 1997’s Jackie Brown, which re-teamed Haig with frequent ‘70s co-star Pam Grier. Tarantino would also tap Haig for his Kill Bill: Vol. 2. But it was Haig’s association with Zombie that would make him a horror star at the ripe old age of 60, introducing him to a whole new generation of fans.
As reported by Yahoo!, the 80-year-old Haig was admitted to the hospital last week after taking a fall and later developed breathing complications. He was then moved to the ICU and was reported to have improved, but later took a turn for the worse. Both Zombie and Haig’s wife Susan L. Oberg took to social media to pay tribute to the late actor. See their posts in the space below:
Appropriately, one of Haig’s final on-screen appearances is in Zombie’s current horror film 3 From Hell, which sees the actor again reprising the role of Captain Spaulding, the deranged proprietor of Captain Spaulding’s Museum of Monsters and Mayhem (unfortunately, Haig's role in the film was cut down due to the actor's health issues). Next year, Haig is set to appear alongside Charles Fleischer in the horror film Hanukkah. Indeed, horror became Haig’s home in the latter part of his career, with appearances in B-grade titles like Death House, Zombex, The Inflicted and Hatchet III. Haig did make his way into some slightly more upscale fare as well, appearing in Zombie’s Halloween remake as well as S. Craig Zahler’s memorable horror-Western Bone Tomahawk.
Haig’s inclusion in films like Zombie’s horror outings and Tarantino’s epics is certainly testament to his status as a memorable character actor, and he indeed used his roles in these films as a springboard to a prolific late-career period that kept him on the map as a familiar and reliable character performer. Undoubtedly, he will be greatly missed by fans of horror films everywhere. Haig is survived by his wife Susan.
Source: Yahoo!