There’s nothing typical about Barbara Steele—not her looks, and certainly not her talent. She’s one of those actresses with such an electrifying presence that it’s just impossible to look away from her when she’s on the screen.
Dark hair, dark eyes, and—even on the occasions when she was playing a virginal innocent—a dark subtext to her personality that tugged at the viewer’s psyche and spoke volumes.
Her big break came in 1960, with Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, in which she played the most darkly alluring witch ever to grace the screen. After that, she left a trail of broken hearts and severed limbs in films such as The Pit and the Pendulum, Castle of Blood, and The She-Beast. One of my favorite Barbara Steele performances was in an episode of the British TV show, Danger Man (aka Secret Agent).
In the 1980’s, she became a television producer, and even won an Emmy for producing the mini-series The Winds of War… but to most of us, she’ll always be that strangely sensual and slightly spooky siren of horror.
I mainly know her from NIGHTMARE CASTLE and 8 1/2. I need to catch up on some of her other movies!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Barbara Steele. I first saw her in Black Sunday and thought she was amazing.
ReplyDeleteVery pretty young woman and terrifying in some of the films. I wonder why she stopped acting?.
ReplyDeleteI saw her in, "Black Sunday" as a child while watching a late night horror program in washington, dc in the mid to late 60's. Needless to say it was one of the scariest movies i have ever seen!!!
ReplyDeleteVirgil