10 Actors Who Ruined Their Careers By Starring In Horror Movies

In a career of over 230 performances in Film and TV, British Actor Donald Pleasence’s most iconic role was as James Bond’s legendary villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in 1967’s You Only Live Twice. Whilst not remembered as one of the better Bond movies, Pleasence’s portrayal of the scarred, soft-spoken, cat stroking super-villain made the role iconic; leading to numerous parodies and imitations such as Mike Myer’s Dr. Evil from Austin Powers. With such a prestigious role, it seemed possible that Pleasence was finally going to reach Hollywood stardom after ten years of starring in low budget Sci-Fi and Horror films.

For a while, his career did seem to flourish with roles in George Lucas’ THX 1138, The Pied Piper where Pleasence starred alongside John Hurt, and he was the voice of The Lonely Water in one of the most famous and scarring British PSA’s of the seventies. However, Pleasence never shook off his horror credentials and kept on starring in low-budget horror films.

This all came to a head with 1978’s Halloween where his portrayal of Dr. Loomis earned him the Saturn Award for best actor, and from then on he was hot in the world of horror and exploitation with roles in Escape From New York, The Demonsville Terror, Prince Of Darkness, Phantom Of Death, Phenomena, and the Halloween sequels. Whilst Donald Pleasence seemed very comfortable with his horror career, there still remains the question of what if.