The actors behind the popular movie masks!

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• published: 23 Mar 2015
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Actors Behind the Masks For several decades, the film industry has had its share of horror villains. There are several actors over the years who have brought the characters to life...some we are familiar with and some we may not be familiarized with. Here's a collection of well known characters and the men behind the masks. Jason Voorhees ACTOR: Derek Mears MOVIE: Friday the 13th (2009) The costume for Jason Voorhees might seem to be a relatively simple affair -- a machete, a hockey mask, and some fake blood should pretty much cover it. Yet Derek Mears, who plays the slasher in the most recent installment of the franchise, spent three and a half hours in the makeup chair to get himself into full Jason mode. Freddy Krueger ACTOR: Robert Englund MOVIE: Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Robert Englund has become a pop culture icon, thanks to his turn as everyone's favorite disfigured dream stalker. Yet even before he put on all that latex and that deadly glove, Englund impacted, if indirectly, another pop culture phenomenon. When he failed to land the role of Luke Skywalker in an audition, he told his friend to try out. His friend was Mark Hamill. Michael Myers ACTOR: Tyler Mane MOVIE: Halloween (2007) Mane plays a psycho-killer in both of Rob Zombie's "Halloween" movies, but his first line of work was only slightly less brutal: wrestling. Going under the name of "Nitro," the 6'8" Mane won the UWF MGM Grand Championship in 1994. When he learned that he landed the part of Myers, he reportedly watched every movie in the "Halloween" franchise consecutively. The Phatom ACTOR: Lon Chaney Sr. MOVIE: The Phantom of the Opera (1925) Chaney was dubbed "The Man of a Thousand Faces" because of his ability to completely transform his visage for a role. For "Phantom," he jammed cotton into his cheeks, glued his ears to his head, and used rubber, spirit gum, and fish skin (yes, fish skin) to pull back his nose and flare his nostrils. The getup was extremely painful and his nose bled from the abuse, but the effort paid off in the end. Movie-goers reportedly fainted from shock at seeing the Phantom's ghoulish unmasked face. Leprechaun ACTOR: Warwick Davis MOVIE: Leprechaun (1993) Warwick Davis was a mere eleven years old when he was picked by George Lucas to play Wicket the Ewok in "Return of the Jedi." Since then, he's been in many sci-fi/fantasy movies from "Willow" to "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" to this movie where he plays a murderous imp with a pot of gold. The Faun ACTOR: Doug Jones MOVIE: Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Doug Jones spent five hours in makeup for both his role as The Faun and the child-devouring Pale Man. Though his costumes left him mostly blind while standing on eight-inch lifts, his primary concern was one of language. Even though he spoke no Spanish, Jones insisted on delivering his lines, and he arduously memorized his parts while in makeup. In the end, though, director Guillermo del Toro had his lines dubbed by a Spanish actor. Frankenstein ACTOR: Boris Karloff MOVIE: Frankenstein (1931) Karloff (born William Henry Pratt) became a star playing Frankenstein's monster and he went on to play the role again in two other movies. While shooting "Son of Frankenstein" (1939), his daughter was born, so he reportedly rushed to the hospital in full makeup. Leatherface ACTOR: Andrew Bryniarski MOVIE: Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) Bryniarski got his start in the movie biz when he was spotted by a talent scout while he was visiting a friend in L.A. A couple months later, he landed a part in "Hudson Hawk." Since then, his looming 6'5" presence has appeared in a string of flicks, most famously as a chainsaw-wielding lunatic with a penchant for strange headgear. Predator ACTOR: Kevin Peter Hall MOVIE: Predator (1987) Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally slated to play the jungle-dwelling alien hunter, but the "Muscles from Brussels" stands at a mere 5'9" -- a less than intimidating height against the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse "The Body" Ventura. The filmmakers hired Hall instead, who stood 7' 4" -- a good fourteen inches above the Governator. Source: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/Whispers68/news/?a=11455 Music: Ice Flow by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0