Barbara Steele

Template:Short description Template:For Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Barbara Steele (born 29 December 1937)<ref name="bfi-date" /> is an English actress and producer, known for starring in Italian gothic horror films of the 1960s. She has been referred to as the "Queen of All Scream Queens"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and "Britain's first lady of horror".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She played the dual role of Asa and Katia Vajda in Mario Bava's landmark film Black Sunday (1960), and starred in The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Template:Sort (1962), Template:Sort (1964), and Castle of Blood (1964).

Additionally, Steele had supporting roles in Federico Fellini's 8½ (1963), David Cronenberg's Shivers (1975), Joe Dante's Piranha and Louis Malle's Pretty Baby (both 1978), and appeared on television in the 1991 TV series Dark Shadows. She won a Primetime Emmy Award for producing the American television miniseries War and Remembrance (1988–89). Steele appeared in several films in the 2010s, including a lead role in The Butterfly Room (2012) and supporting role in Ryan Gosling's Lost River (2014).

Early life

Steele was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire.Template:Sfn She studied art at the Chelsea Art School and in Paris at the Sorbonne.Template:Sfn Before her film career, Steele acted on stage and also worked as a model.

Career

Early work

Steele was signed to a contract by the Rank Organisation. She appeared in several minor film roles during the late 1950s, including in the BAFTA-winning Sapphire (where she appeared opposite future Black Sunday co-star John Richardson) and Upstairs and Downstairs.

In 1960, her contract was sold to 20th Century Fox. She guest starred on an episode of the ABC series, Adventures in Paradise, and was cast as the female lead opposite Elvis Presley in the Western film Flaming Star (1960). However, after one week of principal photography, Steele left the production and was replaced by Barbara Eden. Author Adam Victor writes in The Elvis Encyclopaedia that she was fired because studio executives thought her British accent was too pronounced.<ref name="Elvis Enc-167">Victor, Adam (2008) The Elvis Encyclopaedia. Harry N. Abrams. Template:ISBN. p. 167</ref> However, Steele claimed she quit over a disagreement with director Don Siegel.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Regardless, a March 1960 Screen Actors Guild strike led Steele to abandon her Fox contract.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

Italians films and stardom

Steele travelled to Italy, with the hopes of working with director Federico Fellini. Soon after her arrival, she was cast in her breakout part, the dual roles of Asa and Katia Vajda in Mario Bava's Black Sunday. There are two accounts describing how Steele came to be cast in the film: one suggests that Bava, while perusing through head shots of British actors under contract at Fox, selected Steele from these photos.<ref name=":0" /> Steele, however, recalled that Bava tracked her down after being captivated by photos of her in a Life magazine photoshoot.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Bava later commented that Steele "had the perfect face for my films".<ref name=":0" />

The success of Black Sunday launched Steele to overnight stardom and defined her status as a scream queen. She would star in a string of Italian horror films throughout the decade, including Riccardo Freda's The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962) and The Ghost (1963); Antonio Margheriti's The Long Hair of Death and Castle of Blood (both 1964), Terror-Creatures from the Grave and Nightmare Castle (both 1965).

She also starred in American director Roger Corman's adaptation of The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story of the same title, The She Beast (1966) and the British film Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968).

Steele guest starred in television shows including the spy drama, Danger Man (aka Secret Agent) starring Patrick McGoohan in 1965. In 1961, she appeared as Phyllis in the "Beta Delta Gamma" episode of CBS's Alfred Hitchcock Presents. She also had a supporting role in Fellini's 8½ (1963), and in 1966 appeared in the second-season episode of NBC's I Spy, "Bridge of Spies".

Supporting parts and producer

Steele returned to the horror genre in the later 1970s, appearing in three horror films: David Cronenberg's Shivers (1975), Joe Dante's Piranha (1978), and The Silent Scream (1979).Template:Sfn She also played a lesbian prison warden in Jonathan Demme's directorial debut, the women-in-prison film Caged Heat (1974). She had a supporting role in Louis Malle's critically-acclaimed period drama Pretty Baby (1978).

Steele served as associate producer of the TV miniseries, The Winds of War (1983), and was a producer for its sequel, War and Remembrance (1988), for which she shared the 1989 Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special with executive producer Dan Curtis.

Steele was cast as Julia Hoffman in the 1991 remake of the 1960s ABC television series Dark Shadows. In 2010, she was a guest star in the Dark Shadows audio drama, The Night Whispers.

In 2010, actor-writer Mark Gatiss interviewed Steele about her role in Black Sunday for his BBC documentary series A History of Horror.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2012, Gatiss again interviewed Steele about her role in Shivers for his follow-up documentary, Horror Europa. In 2014, she appeared in Ryan Gosling's directorial debut, the drama-fantasy thriller film Lost River,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in which she portrayed the character Belladonna in a supporting role.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2017, she was inducted into the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards' Hall of Fame.

In 2020, she had a guest role on the animated series Castlevania, voicing the character Miranda.

Personal life

Steele was married to American screenwriter James Poe.<ref name="bfi-date">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They were married in 1969 and divorced in 1978.Template:Citation needed Over the same period her focus changed from European (primarily Italian) films to North American ones. They have a son, Jonathan.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Refs.
1958	Houseboat	uncredited minor role	American
	Bachelor of Hearts	Fiona	British	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1959	The 39 Steps	uncredited extra	British
	Sapphire	Student	British	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	The Heart of a Man	Girl (scenes deleted)	British
	Upstairs and Downstairs	Mary	British	Template:Citation needed
1960	Your Money or Your Wife	Juliet Frost	British	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Black Sunday	Asa Vajda / Katia Vajda	Italian	Template:Sfn
1961	The Pit and the Pendulum	Elizabeth Barnard Medina	American	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1962	Template:Sort (L'orribile segreto del Dr. Hichcock)	Cynthia	Italian	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Il capitano di ferro (also known as The Captain of Iron and Revenge of the Mercenaries)	Floriana	Italian	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1963	8½	Gloria Morin	Italian	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort (Le ore dell'amore)	Leila	Italian	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort (Lo spettro)	Margaret Hichcock	Italian	Template:Sfn
	Template:Sort (Un tentativo sentimentale)	Silvia	Italian	Template:Citation needed
1964	Castle of Blood (Danza macabra)	Elisabeth Blackwood	Italian-French	Template:Sfn
	Template:Sort	Barbara / Signora Brugnoli	Italian	Template:Citation needed
	Les baisers	Thelma	French. Anthology film: segment 3, "Baiser du Soir"	Template:Citation needed
	White Voices (Le voci bianche)	Giulia	Italian	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Tre per una rapina	Barbara Sims (Germany: Anna)	Italian
	The Monocle Laughs (Le monocle rit jaune)	Valérie	French-Italian
	Amore facile	Contessa Bardi-Stucchi	Italian. Segment "Divorzio italo-americano"
	Template:Sort (I lunghi capelli della morte)	Helen Karnstein / Mary Karnstein	Italian	Template:Sfn
1965	Terror-Creatures from the Grave (5 tombe per un medium)	Cleo Hauff	Italian	Template:Sfn
	Nightmare Castle (also known as The Faceless Monster; Amanti d’Oltretomba)	Muriel and Jenny	Italian	Template:Sfn
	Once Upon a Tractor	Lady Clerk	Italian. Short film	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort		Italian	Template:Citation needed
1966	Young Törless	Bozena	German	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort	Teodora	Italian	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort (also known as Revenge of the Blood Beast; Il lago di Satana)	Veronica	British-Italian	Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort (Un angelo per Satana)	Harriet Montebruno / Belinda	Italian	Template:Sfn
1967	Barbara et ses fourrures		French. Short film (9 mins)
1968	Curse of the Crimson Altar	Lavinia Morley	British	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	La amante estelar		Italian. Short film (37 mins)
	Handicap		Spanish. Short film
1969	Honeymoon with a Stranger	Carla	American. made-for-TV film (74 mins).
1970	Fermate il mondo... voglio scendere!	Danielle	Italian
1974	Caged Heat	Superintendent McQueen	American	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1975	Shivers	Betts	Canadian	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1977	I Never Promised You a Rose Garden	uncredited, in fantasy sequence	American
1978	Pretty Baby	Josephine	American	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	The Space-Watch Murders		American. made-for-TV film (74 mins).
	Piranha	Dr. Mengers	American	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	La clé sur la porte	Cathy	French
1979	Silent Scream	Victoria Engels	American	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1995	Tief oben	Mrs. Wagner	German
1998	The Prophet (also known as The Capitol Conspiracy)	Agent Oakley	American
2008	The Boneyard Collection	Vanessa Peabody	American. Anthology film: segment "Her Morbid Desires"
2012	Template:Sort	Ann	American-Italian	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2014	Lost River	Grandmother	American	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	The Shutterbug Man	Narrator	American. Short animation (5 mins)	<ref>vhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnpsH3gBLjA</ref>
2015	The Mill at Calder's End	The Apparition of the Mill	American. Short film (14 mins)
2016	Template:Sort	The Widow	American. Advertisement (short film, 8 minutes long)	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Minutes Past Midnight	The Apparition of the Mill	American. Anthology film: segment "The Mill at Calder's End"	Template:Citation needed
2023	Ulalume - A Ballad	Narrator, opening credits	American

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958	Dial 999	Toni Miller	British. Season 1 Episode 6: "Missing Persons"
1960	Adventures in Paradise	Dolores	American. Season 2 Episode 10: "Daughter of Illusion"
1961	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Phyllis	American. Season 7 Episode 6: "Betta Delta Gamma"
1965	Danger Man	Cleo	British. Season 2 Episode 12: "The Man on the Beach"
1966	I Spy	Giana	American. Season 2 Episode 9: "Bridge of Spies"
1972	Night Gallery	The Widow Craighill	American. Season 2 Episode 21: "The Sins of the Fathers"
1983	The Winds of War	Mrs. Stoller	American. Miniseries, also associate producer
1988	War and Remembrance	Elsa MacMahon	American. Miniseries, also producer
1991	Dark Shadows	Dr. Julia Hoffman / Countess Natalie Du Pres	American. Miniseries
1996	Dark Shadows 30th Anniversary Tribute	n/a	American. Television special, as producer
2020	Castlevania	Miranda (voice)	American. Season 3 Episode 7: "Worse Things Than Betrayal"

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
1989	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Miniseries	War and Remembrance	Template:Won
2017	Fangoria Chainsaw Award	Hall of Fame	Template:N/A	Template:Won

References

Works cited Template:Refbegin

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Further reading

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External links

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• Template:Tcmdb name
• Barbara Steele biography on (re)Search my Trash
• Watch Barbara Steele in Nightmare Castle
• Facebook page (official)