TOBE HOOPER

27 Aug

(29 January 1943 - 26 August 2017)

The American writer, producer, director and sometime actor and composer Tobe Hooper, who has died of natural causes at the age of 74, will be mainly remembered for one influential film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, his second feature from 1974. Born to parents who ran a cinema in Austin, Texas, Hooper began his career as a college professor and documentary film cameraman but graduated to features from 1969. Chain Saw was based on the real-life serial killer Ed Gein, was cheaply made, looked hideous but made a fortune and subsequently led to work for Hooper in Hollywood. However, he never ever reached the giddy heights (or depths) of Chain Saw in his other films. Often writing his own screenplays, he stayed on the same track with Death Trap, The Funhouse, Lifeforce and Invaders from Mars. Although he directed the Spielberg production Poltergeist, it was less personal than his other work. On TV he made Salem’s Lot, from the Stephen King novel, but after The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, he mainly worked in television. Later films included Night Terrors, The Mangler, Toolbox Murders, Mortuary and Djinn, his last film in 2013. Tobe Hooper married twice and had two sons.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

TOBE HOOPER

MIREILLE DARC

JERRY LEWIS