Gunnar Hansen has died aged 68.
The ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ star – who portrayed masked killer Leatherface in the 1974 horror film – tragically passed away at his home in Maine, on Saturday (07.11.15) following a battle with pancreatic cancer.
During his expansive career, the Icelandic-born actor starred in a number of horror movies but he is best known for his part in the Tobe Hooper directed film.
Of the famous role, he shared in 2013: "Anytime Leatherface was cutting on anything it had teeth. It was very dangerous. I had no idea how dangerous it was until later, after the movie came out, when I was living in the woods and chopping up wood to heat the house.
"He’s extremely dangerous and deadly but he’s not purely evil. There’s some ambivalence about your feelings. Because the mask is expressionless, you never see the face, so you’re looking at nothing. I imagined, if you took the mask off, that there would be no face there – in fact, that not only would there be no face, might be nothing at all. Just an empty black spot."
Despite his film credits, he always maintained writing was his passion and he released a non-fiction book in 2013 followed by another novel about the making of the famous movie later that year.
Gunnar is survived by his partner Betty Tower.
Gunnar Hansen dies aged 68
