With its Presentation of chainsaw wielding cannibals “Leatherface” Hansen coined the Horror Genre Gunnar decisively. Now the actor and author has died at the age of 68 years of cancer.
His face to know only a very few, because in his biggest film success Gunnar Hansen wore a mask of “human skin”. To date, the mentally retarded Chainsaw Killer “Leatherface” from “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (“Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) from 1974 is one of the iconic figures of Horrorfimgenres. Now the “Leatherface” actor Gunnar Hansen died at the age of 68 years. As his agent told US media, the actor died Saturday at his home in the US state of Maine. Hansen suffered accordingly from pancreatic cancer.
Hansen was born in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik and moved with his parents at the age of five years in the United States. At the University of Texas, he studied English literature, mathematics and Scandinavian. On the role in “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” He came then by chance. The intended actually for the part actor refused to leave his hotel room just before we started shooting and said the film crew drunk that “bad karma” lying on the film. Hansen took over the role of chainsaw swinging hillbilly spontaneously.
Hansen and his colleagues were given only about 30 dollars for “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”
In “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is about a group of young Hippies, which runs out of gas in rural Texas and so fall prey to a cannibal degenerate butcher family. The real horror took place at that time but during the filming on the set from. Since production had to make do with a small budget, was saved mainly to the safety precautions. Almost all actors wore wounds it. Hansen retired to the scene in which “Leatherface” self-intersecting in the leg, a violent combustion, because the chain brought a to protect attached to his shin iron plate to glow.
The human skin mask that Hansen wore during the filming, incidentally, was in reality made of latex. The in the oppressive heat of the Texas summer was as uncomfortable as the numerous animal carcasses, which were used as props and coated the film set with a bestial stench. Hansen and his fellow actors got for the movie by the way mainly fame and glory, but almost no money. While the 60,000-dollar production played a whopping 50 million. But director Tobe Hooper had made financial hardship sold the rights to the film. The actors were given for their work checks worth almost $ 30.
As an actor, he remained the horror genre faithful
After the success of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, which in Germany by 2012 stood on the index, Hansen moved largely back from acting. He devoted himself mainly literature and worked as a writer and screenwriter. In films, he appeared only sporadically. With films like “Swarm often he Sankehead” or “Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre”, he remained largely the horror genre faithful.
Hansen is survived by his partner, Betty Tower. The couple were together 13 years old.
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