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Sid Haig, Horror Actor and Cult Figure, Dies at 80
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Mr. Haig was a character actor with roles in more than 70 movies, including the murderous clown Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie’s “House of 1000 Corpses.”
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Sid Haig, a Hollywood character actor who for more than 50 years played thugs, villains and, most famously, a psychotic clown named Captain Spaulding, died on Saturday. He was 80.
His wife, Susan L. Oberg, announced his death on the actor’s Instagram account on Monday. No other details were given.
“He adored his family, his friends and his fans,” she wrote. “This came as a shock to all of us.”
Mr. Haig, who lived in Los Angeles, played bit parts in more than 350 television shows and 70 movies, including “Jackie Brown” and the James Bond thriller “Diamonds Are Forever.” He had become a cult figure among horror fans, who reveled in his portrayal of the murderous clown who terrorized people in the 2003 Rob Zombie film “House of 1000 Corpses.” He would go on to play Captain Spaulding (the name was taken from a character famously played by Groucho Marx) in two other films from the director.
Rob Zombie, a musician turned filmmaker, wrote on his Instagram account Monday of Mr. Haig’s death: “Horray for Captain Spaulding. Gone but not forgotten.” Fans, too, expressed their grief on Twitter.
Mr. Haig was the recipient of numerous awards for his work in horror movies. In August, he was given the Vincent Price Award for excellence in the horror genre.
“I had the greatest night of my career,” he wrote on Instagram then.
Mr. Haig was a hulk of a figure whose lanky, long body towered over fellow actors. He was born Sidney Eddie Mosesian on July 14, 1939, in Fresno, Calif., according to his official website. His parents were Armenian, and his father was an electrician. He took dancing lessons and acted in high school. And he loved music. In 1958, according to the website, he played drums on the song “Full House” by the T-Birds.
Soon after, he enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse, a community theater with a school for theater arts that trained actors including Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. In his early roles in film and on television, Mr. Haig mostly played thugs and heavies. In the 1968 cult classic “Spider Baby” his character cooks a cat; he was in the 1974 blaxploitation film “Foxy Brown” with Pam Grier; and he had a small role in “Diamonds Are Forever” in 1971.
But it was as Captain Spaulding, the psychotic clown featured in “House of 1000 Corpses,” that Mr. Haig became best known to horror fans. He said in a 2015 interview with CryticRock.com: “When I first read the script, I knew that it had the potential to do something. I did not know that it was going to be as well accepted as it was. But I did know that it had something going for it.”
In “House of 1000 Corpses,” Captain Spaulding runs the Museum of Monsters and Madmen housed in a run-down gas station on a barren stretch of Texas. There, the clown shoots a man after being attacked. Mr. Haig reprised the role two years later in “The Devil’s Rejects.” He also acted in a number of other horror films directed by Rob Zombie, including the 2007 remake of “Halloween.”
He was back as Captain Spaulding in “3 From Hell,” a sequel to “The Devil’s Rejects,” which was released this month. “He was very cool,” Mr. Haig said of working with Rob Zombie in his interview with CrypticRock.com. “He was really laid back. He would just tell you what he was looking for and then leave you alone and let you do your job. Which is what most directors should do.”
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Added 09/25/19 by: Halfshell
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