THE PERFECT VILLAIN

A couple of days ago I showed you an ad that featured Henry Daniell, character actor in many films, including a handful of horror and genre releases.

Daniell had the perfect face to portray the villain and he did so in the most convincing of ways. His terrifyingly telegenic countenance was perfect for those late-night fear fests on the tube.

Here he is on the cover of the French fan magazine, FANTAZINE. Daniel is pictured in his role of Dr.Emil Zurich in the 1959 Vogue Pictures release, THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE. He is shown with Paul Wexler as Zutai, his undead, head-shrinking Jivaro accomplice.

[Source: MEDUSA FANZINE]

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BACARDI RUM AD SHAKEN WHEN STIRRED

Yesterday, you saw a black and white ad from the pages of PLAYBOY magazine that featured the fiendish countenance of sometimes-horror actor Henry Daniell. The ad appeared in the magazine in 1965, two years after his death.

The Bacardi Rum ad must have had legs because another ad, albeit with the same image, had run two years earlier -- this time in color -- in the October 1963 issue of PLAYBOY. Not to understate yet another morbid coincidence, but October 1963 was the month and year that Henry Daniell died. To make things even weirder, he died on Halloween.

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DEVILISHLY SMOOTH AND FIENDISHLY DRY

Quite at home playing the villain, actor Henry Daniell had a face made for horror films. Able to crack a wry, sinister countenance seemingly at will, Daniell played all sorts of bad guys during his long film career.

To genre fans, he is best remembered as "Toddy" MacFarlane alongside Karloff's John Gray in the film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's THE BODY SNATCHER. He also played the ancient, head-shrinking Jivaro witch doctor in THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE. He even had the distinction of playing Dr. Moriarity in one of his numerous film roles in the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes series of films.

His evil-looking visage was the perfect image for a series of Bacardi Rum magazine spreads with a "devilishly smooth and fiendishly dry" ad copy theme. The examples shown here are from the March 1965 issue of PLAYBOY. A devilishly strange and fiendishly morbid fact about his appearance here is that Mr. Daniell had been already dead for two years.

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