Biography for
Angus Scrimm More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

19 August 1926, Kansas City, Kansas, USA

Birth Name

Lawrence Rory Guy

Height

6' 4" (1.93 m)

Mini Biography

The evil screen villain Angus Scrimm well known as The Tall Man in 'Don Coscarelli''s Phantasm (1979) and its sequels grew up in Kansas City, but, in his teens, moved to California and studied drama at USC under 'William C. De Mille'. The very first film role for Angus was another Tall Man in the history books. He played the role of Abraham Lincoln in an educational film made by Encyclopaedia Brittanica, which led him to a steady career in theater, television and film. Scrimm made a foray into acting with his big-screen debut in the 1976 feature Jim the World's Greatest (1976), which was directed by then 18 year old Don Coscarelli. During this time, he was using his birth name -- Lawrence Rory Guy. He adopted the stage name Angus Scrimm three years later for his performance in a Coscarelli's horror/sci-fi opus Phantasm (1979), which would mark Scrimm's permanent impression upon modern cinema. His role as the infamous Tall Man has earned him the praise of critics world-wide, as well as a large following of fans. His success in the "Phantasm" films has been parlayed into numerous other malevolent roles including, the evil Dr. Sin Do in The Lost Empire (1985), Vlad the Vampire King in Subspecies (1991)), and as the nefarious Dr. Lyme opposite Nicolas Cage and Charlie Sheen in Deadfall (1993). Scrimm did intriguing double duty as the diabolical Seer and the angelic Systems Operator in Mindwarp (1992), co-starring Bruce Campbell. He did a shock cameo in the Italian film Fatal Frames (1996), opposite Stefania Stella and Donald Pleasence and managed a gleeful parody of himself as hulking henchman in Transylvania Twist (1989). But Scrimm has not limited his career efforts to simply acting. As a journalist, he has written and edited for TV Guide, Cinema Magazine, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and other publications. He has also written liner notes for thousands of LPs and CDs for everyone from classical music to jazz, from Frank Sinatra and The Beatles to Artur Rubinstein and Itzhak Perlman. He won a Grammy award for best album liner notes.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Tzvetislav Samardjiev, tzvetislav@abv.bg

Trade Mark

His character of The Tall Man in the Phantasm movie series and in several parodies and commercials.

His deep voice.

Trivia

Has been nominated several times for Grammy awards for his liner notes. He has won at least one grammy award. That is, he won exactly one Grammy Award as his alter-ego Rory Guy. The category was "Best Album Notes, Classical" and he won for his notes on "Korngold: The Classic Erich Wolfgang Korngold" in 1974.

In playing the Tall Man, Angus Scrimm wears suits that are several sizes too small and a pair of special boots with lifts inside to make him appear taller.

Played the Tall Man in a satirical commercial for Fangoria Magazine, a horror magazine.

Because he was suffering from laryngitis, in the opening scene of Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) his usually gravelly Tall Man voice sounded more like Orson Welles.

Being a teenager, he worked as a theater usher where he learned by heart all of the dialogue of the movie playing there, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943).

Turned up in his Tall Man costume and said "BOOYYY" when he was asked at a party thrown for a Hollywood Poster shop-owner Ron Borst. Then director Jim Wynorski, who was at this party, subsequently cast him for the role of evil Dr. Sin Do in a film he directed called The Lost Empire (1985).

Speaks French and Flemish.

He is reputed to be an excellent cook.

His stage name, Angus Scrimm, he made up himself, a combination of a relative's name and a stage curtain (called a scrim).

He has done stage work in recent years with the theater company of acclaimed writer Ray Bradbury.

Don Coscarelli wrote the character of "Buddy" in his episode of "Masters of Horror" (2005) specifically for him, out of necessity of making the story long enough to fit in an hour slot.

He claims he grew up admiring the works of William Powell, Cary Grant and Ronald Colman.

He is a lover of the comedy genre. His dream acting job would be playing a funny part in a parlor comedy.

He is a devoted fan of classic black and white horror films such as Frankenstein (1931) and Dracula (1931). He reportedly dislikes brutality in movies and gore for gore's sake.

He played the role of a funeral director in an episode of "Santa Barbara" (1984).

He loves performing in live theater and has and extensive experience on stage, but nowadays, he only does it when he's asked to.

When his real name was published by Fangoria Magazine, he received some prank phone calls.

He worked in Capitol Records for nine years, writing album notes for the great stars they had under contract, such as Nat 'King' Cole, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli.

His big screen debut role was at age 46. He played the role of "Henry" in Curtis Hanson's first movie Sweet Kill (1973), produced by Roger Corman.

After finishing studies at USC, his first professional acting job was portraying Abraham Lincoln in a series of short biographical films for the Encyclopedia Britannica in 1951.

He was a schoolmate of Sam Peckinpah at USC. Peckinpah came to USC from Fresno to do a graduate job while Angus was in his junior year.

He used to do some showcase theater off campus, but William C. de Mille didn't like his students at USC to do that. Young Lawrence then created the pseudonym "Angus Scrimm" to cover his tracks. Many years later, he revived it to play The Tall Man in Phantasm (1979).

He majored in Drama at USC under William C. de Mille, who was 'Cecil B. de Mille''s brother.

During his first semester at the USC, he contracted tuberculosis and spent two years recuperating. During that time, he read both Testaments, H.G. Wells's History, Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey, Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, 'Tolstoi', Charles Dickens, Erasmus, Voltaire, 'Van Loon', Marcel Rousseau and countless other authors.

In the mid 90's, The British Encyclopedia of Horror printed a book with a little thumbnail sketch in which Angus was alluded to as a minor American horror icon. He subsequently wrote them a letter saying the following: "I'm so grateful to be listed at all, and I realize at my age I'm not apt to attain the record of a Boris Karloff or a Bela Lugosi, but if I manage before my end to make another two or three significant horror films do you think I might be up to a middling horror icon?". He never got a reply back.

Personal Quotes

I still want to do that drawing room comedy. If they ever revive that.

I probably shouldn't confess to this, but I groove on being recognized. But it seldom happens, possibly because I rarely go anywhere dressed in a tight-fitting black suit and boots with two-inch lifts in them.

The MPAA has cracked down pretty badly on the Phantasm pictures. Censorship obviously is necessary, and I'm all for it. I just don't like it when they cut my pictures.

If I did the Tall Man once more, I think I'd like to make him darker and scarier again. Seems to me he softened up a bit in the last episode. I'm quite happy though with the existing quartet of films as a complete and final entity.

[On reprising his role as The Tall Man] I'd jump at it. I'm a little protective of the Tall Man. I'd be reluctant to make a "Phantasm" that wasn't up to the other four. I think it's a very good quartet of motion pictures. If we did another picture it would need to be just as original and just as sparkling in its ideas and freshness as the first and as the subsequent ones. That would be the deterrent and then of course getting it financed in today's film industry would be a challenge.

At a 30th Anniversary screening of the original Phantasm (1979), one fan approached me and said, "You did such a fine job on this movie, you should have played 'Emperor Palpatine' in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)." For me, that was a deep honor.

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