Hammer Horror Legend Ingrid Pitt Dies

Hammer Horror legend Ingrid Pitt has died in London, England aged 73 years old, according to the BBC. It was announced this afternoon that the Polish actress passed away in a south London hospital after falling down a few days earlier.

Many considered her the ‘Queen of Hammer Horror’ after her iconic role in Countess Dracula and several other roles, including The Vampire Lovers, directed by her husband George Roy Baker, who passed away last month at the age of 93.

Born in 1937 in Poland, Pitt survived the horrors of the concentration camps during WW2 and lived for a time in California. She made her film debut in 1965 in David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago. However it is her roles in the vampire films The Vampire Lovers – based on the short story Camilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, her role as Elizabeth Bathory in Countess Dracula and a small part in The Wicker Man that cemented her on-screen reputation as a horror icon.

In later life she mixed acting with writing and even narrated a Cradle of Filth track. But she will always be remembered for bringing a surge of eroticism – and heaving bosom – to her vampire roles, mainly because she was ‘bloody’ gorgeous!

It’s a sad day for the horror genre but she will never be forgotten and neither will her contribution to British horror cinema.

Ingrid Pitt

1937 – 2010

Source: BBC News.