Sticking with the Halloween theme, I thought I'd look at what a few notable names in the horror movie biz are up to.
Eva Bartok starred in numerous films, notably Mario Bava's classic Blood and Black Lace. This Hungarian actress' life is so fascinating that it deserves a book, rather than just a blurb on a blog. Of particular interest was her longtime devotion to an obscure religious sect called Subud, a spiritual association that evolved around Indonesian mystic Mohammed Subuth. She claims the sect cured her of a tumor and led her to spiritual fulfilment. Much of her life was spent teaching, writing and evangelizing the Subud faith.Bartok faded into obscurity by the late seventies, but her name resurfaced in 1998 with a claim that her daughter was fathered by none other than Frank Sinatra. Allegedly, fresh from a separation from Ava Gardner, Sinatra had a fling with Bartok. A detailed biography of Bartok can be found here.
Herschell Gordon Lewis was a master of exploitation and gore. His low budget films like Wizard of Gore and Blood Feast have become cult classics, and he has served as an influence to legions of filmmakers. However, Lewis has made a name for himself in a field far removed from his B-grade gorefests. He is a successful direct marketing consultant with dozens of books and articles to his credit. Nowadays he gets payed big bucks to provide companies with consultation on direct market advertising (go to his website here). See an example of one of his marketing books on Amazon here. What a far cry from Color Me Blood Red!Camille Keaton starred several European horror/giallo films including What Have You Done to Solange? (Cosa avete fatto a Solange?) but it is primarily her role in I Spit on Your Grave (1978) that she is remembered. In the film she plays a woman who is repeatedly brutally assaulted then enacts a bloody revenge. The movie deservedly inspired a lot of attention, much of it negative. Roger Ebert was stricken with disgust calling it "a bag of garbage" and the movie attracts disdain to this day.
Keaton is the grand-niece of Buster Keaton. She began as an Amtrak hostess before acting, a career she pursued through the nineties. In 1993 she married Sidney Luft, a famous Hollywood producer who had been married to Judy Garland! Luft, 35 years her senior, died in 2005, but I'm sure Keaton is doing just fine making do on Luft's immense fortune.
A. Michael Baldwin was the 13 year old boy in Phantasm. He's the son of Gerald Baldwin, who was an animator for The Jetsons, Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Flintstones Christmas and other cartoons. Baldwin delved heavily into Easter mysticism and is the writer and producer of Vice Girls (I'm smirking as I type this). See it here at Amazon.
Teri McMinn starred in Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the girl that gets hung on a meat hook). After the movie, she went on to become a leg and foot model. See her leg advertising and other biographical stuff on her website here. It seems she's making a living these days appearing at various conventions. For an answer to "Whatever Happened To?" horror actresses Dawn Richard (I Was a Teenage Werewolf), Tura Satana (Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) and Yutte Stensgaard (Lust for a Vampire) see an earlier post.
