The House That Dripped Blood
Ingrid Pitt, Hammer horror’s favourite heroine, has died aged 73 in south London. The Polish-born actor, who survived imprisonment in a concentration camp during the second world war, found fame as the blood-splattered, often topless star of films such as Countess Dracula, and The Vampire Lovers.
She relished being cast as predatory baddies, rather than innocent victims. Film historian Marcus Hearn, said: “She was partly responsible for ushering in a bold and brazen era of sexually explicit horror films in the 1970s, but that should not denigrate her abilities.”
Steven Soderbergh gave her a late career boost when he cast her as a sinister aunt in his 1995 noir The Underneath. She also won fans as an author with an autobiography, Life’s a Scream, and three volumes of horror trivia, including 2000’s The Ingrid Pitt Book of Murder, Torture and Depravity.
(Source: Guardian)
An excellent actress … with a lovely pair of fangs. I certainly had strong feelings for her as a teenager.
I recently saw an interview with her and she looked and sounded fine. Shame how sudden illness can just strike like that. She wasn’t that old either.
I suggest of a season of Hammer films on the BBC.
The idea brings back very fond memories of my teenage years when I would come back from the pub for the late night Hammer horror film on Friday nights looking forward to bare ladies with fangs.
Perfect for those dark, cold winter evenings and all classic films.
R.I.P. Ingrid Pitt (Ingoushka Petrov) 1937-2010
