Sunday, April 15, 2012

William Finley: 1942 - 2012


Phantom of the Paradise (1974, Brian De Palma)


Eaten Alive / Death Trap (1976, Tobe Hooper)


The Funhouse (1981, Tobe Hooper)

I was preparing to post the next chapter when I heard the news: William Finley, character actor extraordinaire, passed away yesterday. These pics are my three favorite roles of his, but he can also be seen in De Palma's The Fury and Sisters, as well as Hooper's Night Terrors.

The eyes have it. Take a bow, Marko.

5 comments:

  1. I think I saw William in FunHouse, but I'm more familiar with his off beat character in 'Eaten Alive'. At least as far as Tobe Hooper movies are concerned. His line, "That THING is dangerous!" is almost reminiscent of Gerrit Graham's immortal "What was THAAT?" from Phantom of the Paradise. Haven't seen Night Terrors, though, but I read an interview William did for Fangoria (2006) and he said that he liked the idea of playing a 'normal dad'. Guess when you've done as many capital C CHARACTERS as William has, 'normal' is a nice change of pace. He'll be MISSED!

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  2. Rewatched Phantom of the Paradise yesterday to commemorate (and also just because I wanted to). I saw Sisters for the second time the other week (and wrote a song inspired by it) and saw The Funhouse two days ago - I enjoyed it but I felt it a shame Finley had only one scene. It felt like all was set for him to be part of the dark carnival secrets. Rest in peace. One of my very favourite genre actors.

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