Hy Pyke
Encyclopedia
Hy Pyke was an American
character actor
.
, California
, the son of vaudevillian David Pike and his wife Pauline. Pyke majored in theatre at UCLA in the 1960s, appearing in numerous student films, including one for Ray Manzarek
, keyboard player of The Doors
, called Induction (1965), which also featured The Doors vocalist Jim Morrison
in a brief role. During that time period, Pyke was also associated with Del Close
.
From UCLA, Pyke went on to have a longish career playing strange, often comic characters in usually out-of-the-ordinary, low-budget, independent features, with some brief appearances in mainstream
films. Some of his mainstream appearances, like a small part in the John Milius
film Dillinger
(1973), ended up cut out of the final film. Although many of his better known films are in the horror
genre, Pyke acted in everything from blaxploitation
to musical comedies. He had a unique acting style best described as "manic", which some might call overacting, with a penchant for physical, exaggerated comedy. He also had an extremely distinctive, raspy voice, which could be called a crossing of Aldo Ray
with Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons
.
In the 1970s, Pyke's physical appearance was equally distinctive. Very short, slightly overweight, with a moustache and heavily balding head of wild black hair, he looked like the archetypal Mexican bandit of B-westerns or Sancho Panza
(a role he played in The Erotic Adventures Of Don Quixote, 1976) come to life. Besides his film work, Pyke acted in theater, musical revues, etc.
During the 1970s, Pyke delivered a number of bizarre performances in equally extraordinary films. His most memorable role was as a creepy bus driver in the 1975 horror film Lemora: A Child's Tale Of The Supernatural. Other notable 1970s Pyke appearances were in Dolemite
, (1975), The First Nudie Musical, (1976), and in Spawn Of The Slithis, (1978). Pyke played the part of Bebe Rebozo in an unreleased Richard Nixon
satire called The Way He Was.
Pyke's best-known role is the bar owner Taffey Lewis in the science fiction
movie Blade Runner
, (1982), directed by Ridley Scott
. Another noteworthy 1980s appearance was in the horror comedy Vamp
(1986), starring Grace Jones
. Towards the end of the 1980s, Pyke's acting career slowed down and he moved over to television commercials. His last larger movie role to date was in the low-budget, very minor 1990 horror film Hack-O-Lantern.
Pyke last lived in Los Angeles performing as a nightclub comedian after surviving quadruple by-pass surgery. In 2004, he contributed to a book about obscure 1970s genre films, Gods in Polyester
, reminiscing on Lemora, Dolemite and others, in a style very much in tune with his persona on the big screen. Pyke has been namechecked twice in reviews of the book, in passing on the website of the British Headpress publishing house, and in detail in the Dutch
horror magazine Schokkend Nieuws, where his stories were referred to as "insane adventures". Pyke also contributed pieces on Blade Runner and Hack-O-Lantern to the book Gods In Spandex, A Survivor's Account of 80's Cinema Obscura (2007), a sequel to Polyester. He was also interviewed for a E! True Hollywood Story
episode on David Carradine
in 2000. Pyke has recently appeared in The Secret Pursuit of Happiness, which premiered in 2006. The Internet Movie Database
lists his last film, Dealing, being in post production as of January 2009. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0918510/
}
}
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
.
Biography
Pyke was born Monty Pike in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, the son of vaudevillian David Pike and his wife Pauline. Pyke majored in theatre at UCLA in the 1960s, appearing in numerous student films, including one for Ray Manzarek
Ray Manzarek
Raymond Daniel Manzarek, Jr., better known as Ray Manzarek , is an American musician, singer, producer, film director, writer, co-founder and keyboardist of The Doors from 1965 to 1973, Nite City from 1977–1978 and Manzarek-Krieger since 2001.Manzarek is listed #4 on Digital Dreamdoor's "100...
, keyboard player of The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
, called Induction (1965), which also featured The Doors vocalist Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American musician, singer, and poet, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors...
in a brief role. During that time period, Pyke was also associated with Del Close
Del Close
Del Close was an actor, improviser, writer, and teacher. Considered one of the premier influences on modern improvisational theater, Close had a prolific career, appearing in a number of films and television shows...
.
From UCLA, Pyke went on to have a longish career playing strange, often comic characters in usually out-of-the-ordinary, low-budget, independent features, with some brief appearances in mainstream
Mainstream
Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....
films. Some of his mainstream appearances, like a small part in the John Milius
John Milius
John Frederick Milius is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures.-Early life:Milius was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Elizabeth and William Styx Milius, who was a shoe manufacturer. Milius attempted to join the Marine Corps in the late 1960s, but was rejected...
film Dillinger
Dillinger (1973 film)
Dillinger is a 1973 gangster film about the life and criminal exploits of notorious bank robber John Dillinger.It stars Warren Oates as Dillinger and Ben Johnson as his pursuer, FBI Agent Melvin Purvis. The film, narrated by Purvis, chronicles the last few years of Dillinger's life as the FBI and...
(1973), ended up cut out of the final film. Although many of his better known films are in the horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
genre, Pyke acted in everything from blaxploitation
Blaxploitation
Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...
to musical comedies. He had a unique acting style best described as "manic", which some might call overacting, with a penchant for physical, exaggerated comedy. He also had an extremely distinctive, raspy voice, which could be called a crossing of Aldo Ray
Aldo Ray
Aldo Ray was an American actor.-Life and career:Ray was born in Pen Argyl, PA, to an Italian family of five brothers and one sister. His brother Mario lettered in football at USC in the years 1952-54...
with Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
.
In the 1970s, Pyke's physical appearance was equally distinctive. Very short, slightly overweight, with a moustache and heavily balding head of wild black hair, he looked like the archetypal Mexican bandit of B-westerns or Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote, and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humour, ironic Spanish proverbs,...
(a role he played in The Erotic Adventures Of Don Quixote, 1976) come to life. Besides his film work, Pyke acted in theater, musical revues, etc.
During the 1970s, Pyke delivered a number of bizarre performances in equally extraordinary films. His most memorable role was as a creepy bus driver in the 1975 horror film Lemora: A Child's Tale Of The Supernatural. Other notable 1970s Pyke appearances were in Dolemite
Dolemite
Dolemite is a 1975 blaxploitation feature film, and is also the name of its principal character, played by Rudy Ray Moore, who co-wrote the film and its soundtrack...
, (1975), The First Nudie Musical, (1976), and in Spawn Of The Slithis, (1978). Pyke played the part of Bebe Rebozo in an unreleased Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
satire called The Way He Was.
Pyke's best-known role is the bar owner Taffey Lewis in the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
movie Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
, (1982), directed by Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
. Another noteworthy 1980s appearance was in the horror comedy Vamp
Vamp (film)
-Plot:Two college students, Keith and AJ, want to hire a stripper for their college initiation party, so they go to a dark, seedy part of town to look for a good candidate. They visit a nightclub in a barren, desolate, no-mans land section where the police rarely patrol...
(1986), starring Grace Jones
Grace Jones
Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model and actress.Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and...
. Towards the end of the 1980s, Pyke's acting career slowed down and he moved over to television commercials. His last larger movie role to date was in the low-budget, very minor 1990 horror film Hack-O-Lantern.
Pyke last lived in Los Angeles performing as a nightclub comedian after surviving quadruple by-pass surgery. In 2004, he contributed to a book about obscure 1970s genre films, Gods in Polyester
Gods In Polyester (film book)
Gods In Polyester: A Survivors' Account Of 70's Cinema Obscura is a cult film book covering mainly American obscure, low-budget, and independent film horror, sci-fi, exploitation film, Blaxploitation, Spaghetti Western, and action films that were created between 1970 and 1981.This book was...
, reminiscing on Lemora, Dolemite and others, in a style very much in tune with his persona on the big screen. Pyke has been namechecked twice in reviews of the book, in passing on the website of the British Headpress publishing house, and in detail in the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
horror magazine Schokkend Nieuws, where his stories were referred to as "insane adventures". Pyke also contributed pieces on Blade Runner and Hack-O-Lantern to the book Gods In Spandex, A Survivor's Account of 80's Cinema Obscura (2007), a sequel to Polyester. He was also interviewed for a E! True Hollywood Story
E! True Hollywood Story
E! True Hollywood Story is an American documentary series on E! that deals with famous Hollywood celebrities, movies, TV shows and well-known public figures...
episode on David Carradine
David Carradine
David Carradine was an American actor and martial artist, best known for his role as a warrior monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the 1970s television series, Kung Fu, which later had a 1990s sequel series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues...
in 2000. Pyke has recently appeared in The Secret Pursuit of Happiness, which premiered in 2006. The Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
lists his last film, Dealing, being in post production as of January 2009. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0918510/
Partial filmography
- LemoraLemoraLemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural is a 1975 American horror film written and directed by Richard Blackburn...
: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural AKA Legendary Curse of Lemora (1975)
- The best-regarded of Pyke's horror films, Lemora is the only film directed by Eating RaoulEating RaoulEating Raoul is a 1982 black comedy about a married couple living in Hollywood who resort to killing swingers for their money. It was directed by Paul Bartel and written by Bartel and Richard Blackburn...
writer Richard Blackburn, who knew Pyke from UCLA.
- DolemiteDolemiteDolemite is a 1975 blaxploitation feature film, and is also the name of its principal character, played by Rudy Ray Moore, who co-wrote the film and its soundtrack...
(1975)
- The First Nudie Musical (1976)
- Pyke plays the singing and dancing Uncle Benny, one of the financial backers of the First Nudie Musical. He appears in a few key scenes in the beginning of the film, and later makes brief appearances until the end. One of the stars of the film is Cindy WilliamsCindy WilliamsCynthia Jane "Cindy" Williams is an American actress best known for starring in the television situation-comedy series Laverne & Shirley, in the role of "Shirley Feeney", and for her role as Laurie Henderson in the classic film American Graffiti.-Early life:Williams was born in Van Nuys,...
of Laverne & ShirleyLaverne & ShirleyLaverne & Shirley is an American television situation comedy that ran on ABC from January 26, 1976, to May 10, 1983...
fame.
- The Erotic Adventures of Don Quixote (1976)
- Spawn of the Slithis (1978)
- Nightmare in Blood (1978)
- Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women (1978)
- A TV movie on the life of Florenz ZiegfeldFlorenz ZiegfeldFlorenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , , was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat...
, Pyke's only television acting credit outside of commercials.
- Blade RunnerBlade RunnerBlade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
(1982)
- Hack-O-Lantern (1990)
External links
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