The Man
With
The Hypnotic Eye
I began life in Nottinghamshire, Born October 5th, 1919. It wasn't incredibly long before I was in London, where my acting career began with a production of Wuthering Heights. My progress was abruptly halted with the outbreak of World War II. Though objecting at first, I reluctantly joined the Royal Air Force. After flying several dangerous missions, I was shot down and held captive in a German prisoner-of-war camp for a year. Despite being physically and mentally tortured, I managed to get through it - and even put on plays while I was imprisoned.
My film career didn't begin until 1952, when I appeared in "Arrow to the Heart". I worked extremely hard, appearing regularly on British television until I became a household name. By the sixties, I was getting good parts in big films. These included "Sons and Lovers" and "Hell is a City" (both 1960), and went on to include "The Caretaker (for which I was nominated for a Tony after playing the role on Broadway), The Great Escape, The Greatest Story Ever Told, and Fantastic Voyage to name but a few. I then played one of the roles which would immortalise me in movie history; Bond's nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
My huge number of roles continued on into the 1970's with great success, including the popular Disney film "Escape to Witch Mountain", "The Eagle Has Landed" and "Telefon". 1978 brought me the second role that would cement my place in the realms of movie greatness; that of Dr. Sam Loomis in the massive hit "Halloween". I would go on to play that role a further four times. Unfortunately, my career started to become overrun by awful horror films, and I found that the decent films came my way less and less. I worked extremely hard though; simply to support the luxurious lifestyle to which I had become accustomed. At several points in my career, I was by far the busiest actor in the world.
The 1980's started off brilliantly with "Escape to New York"; another cult classic for my collection. Sadly though, the quality of the films I was making was dismal up until another couple of Halloween installments in '88 and '89. In 1994, I was made an Officer of the British Empire; an award that many considered long overdue. The last film I made was, rather fittingly, Halloween VI in 1995 (though a film titled "Fatal Frames" wasn't released until a year after in '96).
Donald Pleasence, whilst preparing to appear in a production of King Lear, was struck down with heart problems. He died following surgery, Feb. 2nd, 1995 aged 75. He had amassed over 500 screen credits, making him the most prolific film actor at the time of his death.
Awards: Was nominated for four Tony Awards as Best Actor (Dramatic): in 1962 for "The Caretaker", a part he recreated in the film version also titled The Caretaker (1963); in 1965 for "Poor Bitos"; in 1969 for "The Man in the Glass Booth" and, in 1972 for "Wise Child" - but he never won.
Pictures section coming soon.
