Donald Pleasence

Donald Pleasence was an English actor born in Nottinghamshire, England on October 5th, 1919. He first got into acting at a young age while working as a railway clerk and began performing in a 1939 production of Wuthering Heights. During World War II, Pleasence enlisted in the Royal Air Force and served with the 166 squadron. After the war, Pleasence made a career in film, acting in over two-hundred films both in England and the United States. Pleasence has appeared in several horror films such as the 1979 adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula and the 1987 supernatural thriller Prince of Darkness, but he is best known to modern audiences for bringing to life the character of child psychiatrist Doctor Samuel Loomis in the Halloween film franchise. Pleasence reprised the role of Loomis in four of the subsequent sequels, but unfortunately passed away at the age of 75 during production of Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael Myers. Most of Pleasence's scenes had already been shot before he died, but some elements of the film, particularly the climax, had to be restructured to account for his passing.

Notes & Trivia

 * In 1944, while serving in the RAF bomber command, Pleasence's Avro Lancaster was shot down over Agenville, and he became a prisoner of war. Ironically, Pleasence would one day play a British POW in the 1963 film The Great Escape.


 * Originally, the role of Sam Loomis was offered to Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, both of whom established themselves as iconic horror actors for Hammer Film Productions during the 1950s-70s. Lee later remarked that turning down the part was the "biggest mistake he ever made in his career".