Positioned firmly at the opposite end of the optical scale from Madeline Smith, Don was similarly wedded to the horror genre from early on in his career. He did more than the stereotypical staring psychopath, though. His William Hare in The Flesh and the Fiends, for instance, was positively debonair, at least as far as Victorian graverobbers go. But there’s nothing remotely wrong with the roles that made his name: You Only Live Twice, Halloween, The Great Escape and so on. But it would be a shame if his ‘spirit of dark and lonely water’ aspects overshadowed a versatile and often dead funny talents.
FINEST HOUR: We could show off and go for Cul-De-Sac, but we have to lay our money on Death Line – a horror, yes, but Pleasence’s weatherbeaten inspector is, in a neat twist on the usual state of affairs, just about the only sympathetic, even sane, character in the entire film.
Tabby tamer 73
April 3, 2014 at 9:55 pm
Mind the doors……
Glenn Aylett
July 21, 2019 at 12:04 pm
Always made more sinister by his voice, which was a mixture of RP and South Yorkshire. If you wanted a Nazi, a psychopath, a megalomaniac or an eccentric scientist( when he decided to be a good guy), you rang Donald Pleasence. Also had a daughter who looked like and sounded like him who had a minor career in horror films.
Richardpd
October 30, 2021 at 12:18 pm
He used to joke about not turning down offers for work as he had a family with 5 or 6 daughters to support.
Glenn Aylett
October 30, 2021 at 1:31 pm
@ Richardpd, his sinister appearance and voice meant Donald was never short of work. Obviously a Carry On film wasn’t the right place for him, but you wanted Heinrich Himmler, Dr Loomis or Ernst Blofeld, you rang the Pleasence household.