Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Ingrid Pitt (1937-2010)


While stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were the male faces of Hammer studios, Ingrid Pitt was the female face of the studio even though she'd only starred in two of their movies; The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula.

Born in Poland as Ingoushka Petrov, she and her family were imprisoned in a concentration camp. She later embarked on an acting career with a smal role in Dr. Zhivago followed by Where Eagles Dare. It is her body of horror films for which she's best remembered, which included The Wicker Man and The House that Dripped Blood, but particularly her pair of Hammer movies which pushed the boundaries of nudity and eroticism in horror films to new limits.

While she continued to act she focused most of her talents on writing and has published a number of books and articles.

She died today, two days after her 73rd birthday,  from heart failure after collapsing.

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