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Señor Lobo: Horror movie hero Paul Naschy, the ‘Spanish Lon Chaney’
10.31.2016
10:47 am
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Paul Naschy as ‘Father Adrian Dunning’ in the Spanish riff on ‘The Exorcist,’ 1974’s ‘Exorcismo.’
 
Hailing from Madrid, Spanish actor Paul Naschy (born Jacinto Molina Álvarez) had the distinguished honor to be affectionately nicknamed “The Spanish Lon Chaney” as like the illustrious Chaney himself, Naschy has played nearly every single movie monster to ever grace the silver screen.

Naschy is a fascinating cat whose career spans the course of at least 60 years during which he not only held the role of actor, but also writer (including authoring many bawdy Spanish pulp novels under the name “Jack Mills”) and illustrator for various Spanish music albums. Naschy’s behind-the-scenes life was full of interesting gigs including holding the title of champion lightweight weightlifter of Spain in 1958. Looking at the build of the beefy-looking Naschy, this is perhaps not all that surprising.

According to other Naschy folklore, the aspiring actor once met another famous horror icon, Boris Karloff, back in the mid-60s while he was working as an extra on the television showI Spy which was shooting on location in Spain. Karloff was 79 at the time and was cast as a scientist in the episode though he was barely able to walk even with the assistance of leg braces. According to Naschy (a story that is reflected in the title of the posthumous 2010 documentary film on his life, The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry) he observed the elderly Karloff weeping while waiting in the bitter cold for a ride after finishing up his work on the set. Naschy would later say about the heartbreaking scene that he believed that he was one of the only people (perhaps the only person) who ever saw Frankenstein’s monster cry.

Launching his horror film acting career in the late 1960s, Naschy ended up playing the role of “Waldermar Daninsky” (one that Naschy would reprise a dozen times in the “El Hombre Lobo” series of films) the wayward Spanish Wolf Man after Lon Chaney Jr. turned the role down (or according to some sources was passed over due to the fact that he was “too old” as Chaney Jr. was in his 60s at the time). Spain’s own “king of horror” would earn both that title and the loving homage to Chaney Jr.‘s famous father by portraying the following villains and monsters in various films—Dracula; Frankenstein’s monster; the Mummy; Fu Manchu; the Devil; Mr. Hyde; Quasimodo; the Phantom of the Opera; and of course a werewolf (which Naschy played a whopping sixteen times). So popular was Naschy’s role as the Wolf Man that there is even an action figure based on his “El Hombre Lobo” character made by the Spanish branch of the MAGE toy company.
 

A fantastic movie poster for ‘The Werewolf VS. Vampire Woman’ (aka: ‘La Noche de Walpurgis’), 1971. 
 
Naschy acted in more than 100 films many of which have been remastered much to the delight of Naschy’s fans (like yours truly) who appreciate the combination of half-dressed female victims (many of Naschy’s films included a fair amount of nudity) as well as tons of blood and good-old B-movie vibes. Plenty of them are worth watching if you dig vintage Euro schlock horror cinema, such as 1974’s Exorcismo, a Spanish riff on director William Friedkin’s 1973 film The Exorcist in which Naschy not only starred as the tormented character of “Father Adrian Dunning” but also penned the screenplay along with some help from the film’s director Juan Bosch. Others such as Naschy’s 1977 “comeback” Curse of the Devil, his early portrayals of werewolf “Waldemar Daninsky” (especially 1971’s La Noche Del Walpurgis), and the gory 1973 film Hunchback of the Morgue also rank as a few of Naschy’s best when it comes to his massive body of work.

If any or all of this has piqued your interest there is also a fantastic 1200 page book from 2012 that details Naschy’s long career Muchas Gracias Señor Lobo: Paul Naschy Memorabilia by author Thorsten Benzel. Eighteen years in the making, the publication contains a dizzying array of memorabilia some of which had never seen the light of day until the book’s release. And if that is not enough to convince you to check out Mr. Naschy’s films then perhaps consider the fact that other admirers of the multi-talented Spaniard include luminaries such as Quentin Tarantino, fellow actor and forever vampire Christopher Lee, and director John Landis. I’ve included some fantastic Naschy artifacts in this post from publicity stills and far-out posters, as well as a few trailers for Naschy’s movies which would make for perfect viewing on Halloween
 

Naschy in chains as the Wolf Man ‘Waldemar Daninsky.’
 

Naschy as ‘Dracula.’
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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10.31.2016
10:47 am
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