Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was an English actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during his long career. Although he often found himself typecast as villainous and/or psychopathic characters, Pleasence is possibly best known for his work in two of cinema's most enduringly successful franchises: the James Bond and Halloween series - the latter in which he portrayed Samuel Loomis for five installments.
Halloween[]
Donald Pleasence confessed to John Carpenter that the main reason why he took the part of Loomis was because his daughter Angela loved Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).[1]
John Carpenter was quite intimidated by Donald Pleasence, of whom he was a big fan and who was easily the oldest and most experienced person on set.[1] Although Pleasance asked Carpenter difficult questions about his character, Pleasance turned out to be a good-humored, big-hearted individual and the two became great friends, going on to work with him again on Escape from New York and Prince of Darkness (which also featured him as a character named Loomis fighting an unstoppable evil).
Donald Pleasence did all of his scenes in only five days of shooting. The total duration of his scenes in the final edit is just over 18 minutes. His salary was $20,000.
Originally, the script had Dr. Loomis having a surprised reaction to the disappearance of Michael Myers's body from the lawn at the end of the film. Pleasence suggested his character's reaction should instead be an "I knew this would happen" look on his face. They shot it both ways and ended up using Pleasance's idea.
Producer and co-writer Debra Hill would describe Pleasence on set in a 2000 interview. “He flew out from London and was immediately astonished by our ages and was surprised on the effort we wanted to put into this tiny budgeted movie. He was really like the elder on set. He gave every scene its respect, and never looked down on us for our lack of experience compared to his.”
Just prior to Halloween II's release, Pleasence shot additional and alternate scenes for the 1981 televised release of the first film.
When Moustapha Akkad asked Pleasence how many more Halloween films he was planning to make, he replied, "I stop at twenty-two!"
At the end of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, it then says "In Memory of Donald Pleasence". Both The Curse of Michael Myers and Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later were dedicated to him.
Pleasence is mentioned prominently in Halloween: 25 Years of Terror, a documentary on the first eight films of the series. The cast of the sixth film speak highly of the honor of working with him on his last movie. P. J. Soles's narration erroneously states that Pleasence died in England, but he actually died in France.
Appearances[]
Sources[]
Donald Pleasence on the Internet Movie Database