NEVER turn your back on a f***in' clown when he's talkin' to you

September 24, 2019 2:06 AM

Revered by horror fans and largely unknown to the general public, cult film icon Sid Haig has passed away.

After a breakout role in the 1967 Lon Chaney Jr. flick Spider Baby (YouTube trailer -- TW, spiders), Haig went on to appear in well over a hundred films and TV shows, mostly as thugs and heavies.

(All following YouTube links NSFW for varying degrees of language, sauciness, violence, and clowns.)

He gained some measure of fame via featured roles with Pam Grier in several women-in-prison films from the Roger Corman factory (The Big Doll House [YT clip], The Big Bird Cage [YT clip]) as well as a couple of Blaxploitation classics (Coffy [YT clip -- TW, dragged-behind-a-car gruesomeness], Foxy Brown [YT clip]). This naturally led to his cameo in Quentin Tarantino's Grier vehicle Jackie Brown (couldn't find a Sid clip -- here's the original trailer).

Most recently, he experienced something of a career revival thanks to Rob Zombie, who cast him as Captain Spaulding, the head of the murderous Firefly Clan, in House of 1000 Corpses (YT clip), The Devil's Rejects (YT clip), and -- briefly, due to Haig's failing health -- 3 From Hell (trailer), released this month.

Articles with more thorough career overviews: NY Times, Variety, and the A.V. Club.

posted by Karlos the Jackal (21 comments total)

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posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 2:10 AM on September 24, 2019

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posted by valkane at 2:29 AM on September 24, 2019

He also appeared memorably in Wonder Women, one of Rifftrax's funnier offerings.
posted by wittgenstein at 3:30 AM on September 24, 2019

Sid Haig was a really nice guy who always made time for his fans. He'll be missed.

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posted by Faint of Butt at 3:46 AM on September 24, 2019

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posted by mikelieman at 4:01 AM on September 24, 2019

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posted by surlyben at 4:16 AM on September 24, 2019

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posted by dannyboybell at 4:51 AM on September 24, 2019

My favorite Sid performance will always be in The A-Team episode “Black Day at Bad Rock,” followed closely by his brief appearance in Bone Tomahawk. RIP Sid.

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posted by holborne at 5:32 AM on September 24, 2019

It was only about a year after I saw The Devil's Rejects that I realized Haig was also the baddie on Jason of Star Command, so he started freaking me out really early.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 5:57 AM on September 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

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posted by snsranch at 7:19 AM on September 24, 2019

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posted by Token Meme at 8:57 AM on September 24, 2019

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posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 9:27 AM on September 24, 2019

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posted by SonInLawOfSam at 9:48 AM on September 24, 2019

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posted by Splunge at 10:06 AM on September 24, 2019

His image gallery on IMDB is really quite something.
posted by zamboni at 1:25 PM on September 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

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posted by porpoise at 7:46 PM on September 24, 2019

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posted by riruro at 8:02 PM on September 24, 2019

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posted by hap_hazard at 9:29 PM on September 24, 2019

Why is it the scariest guys are ALWAYS the sweetest guys?

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posted by djrock3k at 7:37 AM on September 25, 2019

mofo had dem crazy eyes

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posted by mannequito at 11:10 PM on October 8, 2019

I'm sad there are so few periods here. Sid was amazing and he did wonderful things. He worked with Scares that Care, for example.

These photos of him show what a beautiful person he was.
posted by miss-lapin at 4:48 AM on October 11, 2019 [2 favorites]