Leatherface Is Dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    This time, it is for real, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     I am talking, of course, about Gunnar Hansen, who originated the role in the Tobe Hooper classic, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."  I can never forget my first viewing of this film, which was sometime in the Eighties, at Manhattan's famed revival house, the Thalia. The floor was so sticky I thought my feet might be permanently embedded there, the seats were uncomfortable, and the audience....well not mainstream.  The film was on a double bill with "Driller Killer," whose title proved to be better than its product.

                                      But it was Hansen, wielding that chainsaw, and Marilyn Burns, screaming incessantly through that bizarre looking tunnel of thorn like trees, that cemented this film for me as a masterwork. Burns' screaming was, actually more unnerving than Hansen as Leatherface; though many screamed at his appearance.  Because of his size and bulk, I thought of him as a sort of middle aged monster.  Imagine my surprise.

                                        Hansen was born in Iceland.  He died Saturday, of pancreatic cancer, at his home in Northwest Harbor, Maine. He was 68 years old. So, that meant he was born in 1947, which meant he was just a kid--27--when he immortalized Leatherface.  Like Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, he went on to become a cottage industry, with other actors playing him, but only Hansen truly owned the role.

                                         Not until Betsy Palmer outdid herself, six years later, in the original "Friday The 13th," as Mrs. Voorhees, was being menaced so much fun.  Leatherface set the gold standard for such, back in 1974.

                                           Rest In Peace, Gunnar Hansen.  You swung the meanest chainsaw!!!!!!!!!!