Angus Scrimm

He was a devoted fan of classic black and white horror films such as Frankenstein (1931) and Dracula (1931). He reportedly disliked brutality in movies and gore for gore's sake.

Being a teenager, he worked as a theater usher where he learned by heart all of the dialogue of the movie playing there, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943).

After finishing studies at USC, his first professional acting job was portraying Abraham Lincoln in a series of short biographical films for the Encyclopedia Britannica (1951).

His big screen debut role was at age 46. He played the role of "Henry" in Curtis Hanson's first movie Sweet Kill (1972), produced by Roger Corman.

Had been nominated several times for Grammy Awards for his liner notes. He had won at least one Grammy Award. That is, he won exactly one Grammy Award as his alter-ego Rory Guy. The category was "Best Album Notes, Classical" and he won for his notes on "Korngold: The Classic Erich Wolfgang Korngold" (1974).

His big-screen debut was in Jim, the World's Greatest (1975), directed by then 18-year-old Coscarelli. During this time he was using his birth name, Lawrence Rory Guy. He adopted the stage name Angus Scrimm three years later for his performance in Coscarelli's horror/sci-fi opus "Phantasm", which would mark Scrimm's permanent impression upon modern cinema. His role as the infamous Tall Man has earned him the praise of critics worldwide, as well as a large following of fans. His success in the "Phantasm" films has been parlayed into numerous other malevolent roles including the evil Dr.

The evil screen villain Angus Scrimm, most famous as "The Tall Man" in Don Coscarelli's Phantasm (1979) and its sequels, grew up in Kansas City, but in his teens moved to California and studied drama at USC under William C. de Mille (brother of Cecil B. DeMille). His film debut came as another "Tall Man" he played Abraham Lincoln in an educational film made by Encyclopaedia Brittanica, which led him to a steady career in theater, television and film.

Sin Do in The Lost Empire (1984), Vlad the Vampire King in Subspecies (1991) and the nefarious Dr.

In the mid-1990s, the British Encyclopedia of Horror printed a book with a little thumbnail sketch in which Angus was alluded to as a minor American horror icon. He subsequently wrote them a letter saying the following: "I'm so grateful to be listed at all, and I realize at my age I'm not apt to attain the record of a Boris Karloff or a Bela Lugosi, but if I manage before my end to make another two or three significant horror films do you think I might be up to a middling horror icon?". He never got a reply back.

Scrimm did intriguing double duty as the diabolical Seer and the angelic Systems Operator in Mindwarp (1991), co-starring Bruce Campbell.

Lyme opposite Nicolas Cage and Charlie Sheen in Deadfall (1993).

Because he was suffering from laryngitis, in the opening scene of Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) his usually gravelly Tall Man voice sounded more like Orson Welles.

Don Coscarelli wrote the character of "Buddy" in his episode of Masters of Horror (2005) specifically for him, out of necessity of making the story long enough to fit in an hour slot.