Scary Lookin' Bastards

Mark Nelson
29 October 2003

This month: Julian Beck

Most Famous Role: Poltergeist 2

What better way to kick off a salute to cinema's Scary Lookin' Bastards than to feature perhaps the scariest lookin' Bastard of all time, Julian Beck? While the name may not ring a bell for most, anyone who ever saw Poltergeist 2 or it's trailer will remember Beck as the old man on the other side of that screen door. At first creepily soft-spoken, then soul-frighteningly insane, the screen will never again see another skeletal old bald man screaming "YOU ARE GONNA DIE!!" quite like Beck did. For the sake of the children, we can only hope so. Beck was also featured in a guest shot on Miami Vice in 1984. Here too he gave off an aura of being a well-dressed and articulate zombie. It should be no surprise that Julian Beck is dead (I think most folks who first saw him in Poltergeist 2 assumed that he had passed away several years before he took the role). It will probably come as a surprise to most, however, that Beck led quite a remarkable life before that one film appearance relegated him to the inner sanctum of our childhood cinematic nightmare imagery. Co-founder of the avant garde LIVING THEATRE, Beck was an OBIE-winning playwright and published poet, an advocate of LSD and left-wing politics, and apparently something of a legend in theatrical circles. Who'da thought?

2003 nominee for Scary Lookin' Bastards Hall of Fame (post-mortem).
For more photos and information on Julian Beck, check out the great tribute page here:
And his list of credits at The Internet Movie Database