retro trailer: ‘The Wolf Man’

Chaney Jr. and the Wolf Man are indirectly responsible for my having become an actor [theatre, but still...]. I was nuts about the vintage monster movies as a kid, and Larry Talbot was my favorite. At eight or so I made the connection that he [and Jonathan Frid et al of DARK SHADOWS] got to put on costumes and "play like" monsters -- and that was their JOB.

He's also the reason I never write fan letters. A couple of years after the "big realization", I wrote to him. I think I was in fifth grade. He died the day I mailed it. Never wrote one since!!!

Onstage, more of my time has been spent with Shakespeare and Ibsen and Chekhov etc. than with supernatural monsters [tho' I've played Dracula in three productions and Renfield in another], but I credit "The Wolf Man" for having gotten the ball rolling.