Celebrate John Saxon With 8 of the B-Movie Legend’s Most Memorable Genre Roles

The world lose a commanding bearing over the weekend withthe loss of John Saxon , a dear cult actor whose career stretch back to the fifties and encompassed a extensive stove of Westerns , sci - fi , crime dramas , horror(including threeNightmare on Elm Streetmovies ) , and so , so much more .

1) A Nightmare on Elm Street films

Slasher movies from the 1980s tended not to let in many cops or parental figure . While 1984 ’s A Nightmare on Elm Street does ultimately mark final young lady Nancy ( Heather Langenkamp ) against the dreaded Freddy Krueger ( Robert Englund ) , her divorced parents — mom Marge ( Ronee Blakley ) and dad Donald ( Saxon)—play a big part in the tarradiddle . Not only do they partake in a tragic secret about Freddy ’s origins , Saxon ’s no - meaninglessness character is also a local constabulary lieutenant , meaning he ’s run stop on the investigation when the killer whale starts pink off Elm Street teens in their dreams .

Lt . Thompson examine such an important presence in Nancy ’s story that he returned for 1987 ’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 : Dream Warriors , which sees Nancy , now a grad student , trying to help troubled teenager who ’re being point by you - know - who . She call in on her dad to help end the terror , believe if Freddy ’s bone are properly sink he ’ll stop slaughtering kid ; unfortunately , though Freddy ’s skeleton has been long obliterate , it ’s still capable of coming to liveliness ( thanks to some awesome stop - motion animation ) and committing slaying . But even with his character ’s on - screen death , Dream Warriors was n’t the ending of Saxon ’s Nightmare break away . In 1994 , he had a cameo as a fancied version of himself in Wes Craven ’s New Nightmare , the manager ’s meta twist on the horror franchise that imagine the malign spirit that inspired Freddy has force its way into reality .

2) Tenebre

Dario Argento ’s 1982giallo filmmay not have the instant name recognition ofSuspiria , nor does it bear any witches — but it ’s still set in the director ’s key signature waking - nightmare variant of the real world , right down to its eery synth mark by member of Goblin . Anthony Franciosa stars as best - sell crime source Peter Neal , whose publicity tour brings him to Rome just as a serial of brutal murders seemingly inspire by his books start to pull through the city . Saxon has a small but significant persona as Neal ’s literary agent , Bullmer , though none of his striking plot of land points ( including his gruesome dying ) liken to the famously quirky consequence where Bullmer excitedly does a little dancing to show off his brand - new Italian fedora to his client .

3) The Evil Eye

Twenty years before Tenebre , Saxon put to work with another Italian horror legend — the greatMario Bava — on 1962 thriller The Evil Eye , aka The girlfriend Who Knew Too Much . Saxon plays a doctor in Rome who becomes pull into a strange murder case when he pay off affect with a pretty American holidaymaker who consider she ’s witnessed a execution , then is apparently ride by the unknown sea wolf in the wake . The Evil Eye is consider to be the first giallo film and was highly influential to the literary genre moving forward , with its dramatic cinematography ( a Bava trademark ) making it feel like an special - fashionable twist on all the noir moving-picture show that came before .

4) Enter the Dragon

Technically , 1973 ’s Enter the Dragon is n’t really an io9 film . But we ’re let in it here because it most for certain is a cult classic , and in addition to beingmartial humanistic discipline caption Bruce Lee ’s most noted movie — it might just be Saxon ’s , too . Dude could push !

5) Black Christmas

Saxon once again play a police police lieutenant in the context of a murder mystery in Bob Clark ’s vacation chiller , one of the very firstslasher films . Unlike in A Nightmare on Elm Street a X later , Saxon ’s case , Lt . Fuller , does n’t have to deal with a Orcinus orca who operate in another dimension ; this time , the creep ’s hiding upstairs in the sorority house the intact sentence ! Of of course , nobody roll in the hay that until the end , so we get to see Lt . total stellar search party , coordinating surveillance , and installing the most high - tech headphone - tapping technology that 1974 could offer , in an earnest movement to forbid the prank - call maniac from claiming any more dupe .

https://gizmodo.com/black-christmas-is-way-more-than-just-a-holiday-slasher-1821204325

6) Cannibal Apocalypse

For a legal brief , stunningly weird moment in cinematic history , cannibal movieswere all the rage . In 1980 , director Antonio Margheriti ( a honest purveyor of delicious trash ) fuse that most gore - gasmic of horror substrains with the Vietnam War musical genre , and Cannibal Apocalypse , also know by the name anthropophagus in the Streets , was born . Saxon hold down the inwardness of a unfeignedly ridiculous movie through the superpower of sheer charisma , playing a Vietnam vet who starts to surmise the unhinged people his whole receive back in the jungle may have passed on an infection that makes them lust human build , and not in a civil , Hannibal dinner party company form of manner . This word form of cannibalism is feral and aggressive and absolutely skews into zombie territory — allow ’s just say there ’s a reason the word “ Revelation of Saint John the Divine ” is part of the flick ’s statute title .

https://gizmodo.com/the-9-weirdest-italian-horror-movies-1734882428

7) “The Feminum Mystique,” Wonder Woman

This tilt is mostly focusing on Saxon ’s flick career , but he also racked up an telling amount of television credits over the years , with invitee office on shows like Starsky and Hutch , The Six Million Dollar Man , Dynasty , Fantasy Island , and The A - Team . He also appeared in several telly film , including a pair of Gene Roddenberry projects , 1974 ’s Planet Earth and 1975 ’s unusual New World . But just for fun , we ’re foreground Saxon ’s Edgar Albert Guest - star turn on “ The Feminum Mystique , ” a two - part sequence duringWonder Woman ’s first season , back when the show was set in the 1940s .

Saxon puts on a German emphasis to play a Nazi undercover agent obsessed with tracking down Wonder Woman ’s invisible jet and the fantastical metal ( “ feminum ” ) that her bracelets are made from . ( Later , he gets put under the Lasso of trueness and spills all his enigma . ) This episode also have a young Debra Winger as Wonder Woman ’s niece , Drusilla , aka “ Wonder Girl”—which , of course , opens up the plot for “ Nazis error Wonder Girl for Wonder Woman ” shenanigans galore , as well as a most abortive Nazi intrusion of Paradise Island .

https://gizmodo.com/4-wild-gene-roddenberry-sci-fi-tv-projects-that-had-not-1837407710

John Saxon and his jaunty hat in Tenebre.

John Saxon and his jaunty hat in Tenebre.Screenshot: Sigma Cinematografica

8) Battle Beyond the Stars

This Roger Corman - produced space - stravaganza feature a handwriting by future Oscar nominee John Sayles that riffs onAkira Kurosawa’sSeven Samurai , a surge James Horner orchestral account , and particular outcome designed by succeeding King of the WorldJames Cameron . But more significantly for our design , it co - stars Saxon as an epical intergalactic villain describe Sador , a bozo so odious he ’s been extend his life for far too long using steal body parts . He also has a planet - busting arm he uses freely to deflect dissident to his will . If that all sounds familiar , note that Battle Beyond the Stars occur out in 1980 , and any similarities to other “ Wars ” among the “ Stars ” are definitely not coincidental . At any rate , it ’s still fun to revisit , and Saxon is a pleasure to behold as the universe ’s most showily vicious scoundrel .

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Saxon looking skeptical, as he does throughout most of A Nightmare on Elm Street.