Celebrities come in all kinds of sizes, from big to small, both in stature and career. So it's with a heavy heart that I report the passing of one who was both and in both ways.
Angus Scrimm, best known to horror fans for almost 40 years as The Tall Man in the Phantasm horror films, has passed away from natural causes at the age of 89.
Born Lawrence Rory Guy in Kansas City, Kansas on August 19, 1926, Scrimm was a natural performer and lovable ham who was bitten by the acting bug at an early age, studying acting at USC in Los Angeles. One of his early touted performances (at least by his fans) was a performance as a young Abraham Lincoln in an Encyclopedia Brittanica short film from the 1950s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9GFaTZl04s . But it was in the field of journalism where he plied his first steady trade, writing for TV Guide, Cinema Magazine and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner among many others. He also delved into writing liner notes for Capitol Records for such luminaries as Frank Sinatra and The Beatles in his early career, and artists such as Itzhak Perlman and Arthur Rubenstein later. His skills were so prolific in the latter, that it netted him a Grammy Award.
He started his foray into professional acting in the early 70s in the horror genre, but it was the selection of the role as an abusive father in Jim, the World's Greatest (1976), the debut film of a young director named Don Coscarelli, that solidified a working friendship that would last the rest of his life. Coscarelli chose Scrimm to act as the villain in his then-upcoming horror film Phantasm (1979).
The tall, (6'4") lanky Scrimm was unquestionably made for the role of The Tall Man, the seemingly unkillable transdimensional alien posing as a grim mortician in a small California town, where he reanimates the corpses of the dead to use as slaves in his native realm. The film's iconic role was supplemented by its singular recurring weapon: a self-guiding flying sphere armed with numerous implements for dispatching unlucky walkers of corridors.
The film was a modest success, but it's surreal imagery and bold vision made it an instant classic for a generation of horror movie fans at the dawn of the Slasher genres, and united Scrimm with actors Bill Thornbury, A. Michael Baldwin, and fellow fan favorite Reggie Bannister as the indispensable ensemble cast that stayed together (almost entirely) intact for every film afterward. The franchise was revisited in 1988 when a new Universal executive greenlit the sequel for a meager $3 million, making it the largest budget entry in the series to date.
This was the coveted horror movie of my childhood.
But Coscarelli's repetitive narrative structures, as well as piddling reviews, killed the film's box office potential, and while the film did make back its money and then some on home video, the response killed off future investments of studio capital. The property remained at Universal while Coscarelli struggled to finance 2 more sequels in the 90s, each with diminishing budgets: Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1993), and Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998).
By the early 90s, Scrimm had quickly become the toast of the horror convention circuit. Unlike numerous legends who begrudgingly capitalized on their resented fame for their work (Tom Savini, Tony Todd, and increasingly Doug Bradley), Scrimm, a soft-spoken, erudite, and utterly gentlemanly goofball of a man, reveled in the adoration of the fans, and was always keen to socialize with them, as well as take good-natured pop-shots at his alter ego as he did in the 1990 film Transylvania Twist
Scrimm in his more native nature.
He would work in various horror and sci-fi films of serious and comedic bent--Mindwarp (1991) Subspecies (1990), Munchie Strikes Back (1994), before being brought on to TV by other genre legends for their shows such as FreakyLinks, and a recurring role as agent SD-6 in Alias; he turned down the role in The X-Files movie in 1998 to shoot the 4th Phantasm film. The 2000s saw an expansion of his resume into more high-brow work, some of it horror (The Off Season, I Sell The Dead) and some of it less so (John Dies at the End, 2013).
The last few years saw Scrimm become more frail in his advancing age, relying on a cane at attendance to horror conventions, both big and small, often to thunderous, standing ovations for second and third generations of fans, and taking smaller parts. Coscarelli struggled for a few more years to revive the Phantasm series for a fifth installment, even going so far as to shoot rehearsal footage for the intended script with the actors out of costume. The footage circulated for years until finally, the 5th film was shot in 2015, after receiving its financing.
Phantasm: RaVager, now the final film in the series, will be released some time this year. At the time of posting, J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot is working on a 4K restoration of the 1979 original. Abrams, a die-hard fan of Phantasm, adopted the franchises' name for the character of Captain Phasma, and the reflective qualities of her suit from the sphere for Star Wars: The Force Awakens:
Lawrence Rory Guy (aka Angus Scrimm) died Saturday, January 9, 2016 at home, reportedly surrounded by family and friends. I can' think of a more deserving fate for who may have been horror's sweetest man.
Farewell, Mr. Guy, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you've done for us.
I'm getting goddamn sick of writing these fucking things.
Angus Scrimm, best known to horror fans for almost 40 years as The Tall Man in the Phantasm horror films, has passed away from natural causes at the age of 89.
Born Lawrence Rory Guy in Kansas City, Kansas on August 19, 1926, Scrimm was a natural performer and lovable ham who was bitten by the acting bug at an early age, studying acting at USC in Los Angeles. One of his early touted performances (at least by his fans) was a performance as a young Abraham Lincoln in an Encyclopedia Brittanica short film from the 1950s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9GFaTZl04s . But it was in the field of journalism where he plied his first steady trade, writing for TV Guide, Cinema Magazine and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner among many others. He also delved into writing liner notes for Capitol Records for such luminaries as Frank Sinatra and The Beatles in his early career, and artists such as Itzhak Perlman and Arthur Rubenstein later. His skills were so prolific in the latter, that it netted him a Grammy Award.
He started his foray into professional acting in the early 70s in the horror genre, but it was the selection of the role as an abusive father in Jim, the World's Greatest (1976), the debut film of a young director named Don Coscarelli, that solidified a working friendship that would last the rest of his life. Coscarelli chose Scrimm to act as the villain in his then-upcoming horror film Phantasm (1979).
The tall, (6'4") lanky Scrimm was unquestionably made for the role of The Tall Man, the seemingly unkillable transdimensional alien posing as a grim mortician in a small California town, where he reanimates the corpses of the dead to use as slaves in his native realm. The film's iconic role was supplemented by its singular recurring weapon: a self-guiding flying sphere armed with numerous implements for dispatching unlucky walkers of corridors.
The film was a modest success, but it's surreal imagery and bold vision made it an instant classic for a generation of horror movie fans at the dawn of the Slasher genres, and united Scrimm with actors Bill Thornbury, A. Michael Baldwin, and fellow fan favorite Reggie Bannister as the indispensable ensemble cast that stayed together (almost entirely) intact for every film afterward. The franchise was revisited in 1988 when a new Universal executive greenlit the sequel for a meager $3 million, making it the largest budget entry in the series to date.
This was the coveted horror movie of my childhood.
But Coscarelli's repetitive narrative structures, as well as piddling reviews, killed the film's box office potential, and while the film did make back its money and then some on home video, the response killed off future investments of studio capital. The property remained at Universal while Coscarelli struggled to finance 2 more sequels in the 90s, each with diminishing budgets: Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1993), and Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998).
By the early 90s, Scrimm had quickly become the toast of the horror convention circuit. Unlike numerous legends who begrudgingly capitalized on their resented fame for their work (Tom Savini, Tony Todd, and increasingly Doug Bradley), Scrimm, a soft-spoken, erudite, and utterly gentlemanly goofball of a man, reveled in the adoration of the fans, and was always keen to socialize with them, as well as take good-natured pop-shots at his alter ego as he did in the 1990 film Transylvania Twist
Scrimm in his more native nature.
He would work in various horror and sci-fi films of serious and comedic bent--Mindwarp (1991) Subspecies (1990), Munchie Strikes Back (1994), before being brought on to TV by other genre legends for their shows such as FreakyLinks, and a recurring role as agent SD-6 in Alias; he turned down the role in The X-Files movie in 1998 to shoot the 4th Phantasm film. The 2000s saw an expansion of his resume into more high-brow work, some of it horror (The Off Season, I Sell The Dead) and some of it less so (John Dies at the End, 2013).
The last few years saw Scrimm become more frail in his advancing age, relying on a cane at attendance to horror conventions, both big and small, often to thunderous, standing ovations for second and third generations of fans, and taking smaller parts. Coscarelli struggled for a few more years to revive the Phantasm series for a fifth installment, even going so far as to shoot rehearsal footage for the intended script with the actors out of costume. The footage circulated for years until finally, the 5th film was shot in 2015, after receiving its financing.
Phantasm: RaVager, now the final film in the series, will be released some time this year. At the time of posting, J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot is working on a 4K restoration of the 1979 original. Abrams, a die-hard fan of Phantasm, adopted the franchises' name for the character of Captain Phasma, and the reflective qualities of her suit from the sphere for Star Wars: The Force Awakens:
Lawrence Rory Guy (aka Angus Scrimm) died Saturday, January 9, 2016 at home, reportedly surrounded by family and friends. I can' think of a more deserving fate for who may have been horror's sweetest man.
Farewell, Mr. Guy, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you've done for us.
I'm getting goddamn sick of writing these fucking things.
