One ‘cursed’ horror film has an even more tragic backstory than it first appears, as one actor was secretly dying in real life during filming.
Julian Beck played the creepy villain Reverend Kane in Poltergeist 2, the sequel to Steve Spielberg’s 1982 horror hit. Seen with sunken eyes and a gaunt appearance, the balding actor was reportedly so frightening to encounter that his young co-star Heather O’Rourke – who played Carole Anne – burst into tears.
Sadly, the truth behind his appearance is even sadder, as Julian was battling stomach cancer during filming after receiving his diagnosis in 1983. The cancer was eating away at his body, lending him a skeletal appearance, and by September 1985 he had sadly died – eight months before the film’s release.
READ MORE: Leonardo DiCaprio ‘likes to vape’ during sex and ‘listens to MGMT’ while romping
READ MORE: Want more showbiz? Daily Star has just the thing for you!
He was just 60 years old, and left behind two children, Garrick and Isha. Despite being married to wife Judith Malina since 1948, the pair kept an open relationship so Julian could pursue a relationship with male actor Ilion Troya, and shared lover Lester Schwartz with his wife.
(Image: Mgm/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
Beck’s death meant Poltergeist and its sequel were widely considered ‘cursed’ films – which some superstitious viewers put down to its use of real-life skeletons in its most terrifying scenes. Actress JoBeth Williams, who played Diane Freeling, admitted: “I would have to go into this huge tank of what I thought were mud with these skeletons — which, by the way, I thought were plastic, but later found out they were real skeletons. It was a real nightmare.”
She said in a separate 2008 interview: “In my innocence and naiveté, I assumed that these were not real skeletons. I assumed that they were prop skeletons made out of plastic or rubber. I found out — as did the whole crew — that they were using real skeletons, because it’s far too expensive to make fake skeletons out of rubber. And I think everybody got real creeped out by the idea of that.”
(Image: MGM)
The skeletons were obtained from Carolina Biological, which supplied human skeletons to medical schools in the 80s, as replicas were more difficult to obtain.
And further rumours of a ‘curse’ came from Heather O’Rourke’s tragic death, aged just 12. The young actress was diagnosed with the parasitic disease giardiasis in 1987, and subsequently with Crohn’s disease. Prescribed cortisone injections, the actress sported facial swelling when filming the third Poltergeist movie.
(Image: MGM)
For more of the latest showbiz news from Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.
Sadly in 1988, the young actress suffered a cardiac arrest after collapsing at home, and was flown to hospital and went into emergency surgery. Though she survived the operation, she suffered another cardiac arrest in the recovery room and passed away.
Her official cause of death was congenital stenosis of the intestine, with complications caused by septic shock. Poltergeist III was released posthumously after Heather’s death.
Follow Daily Star on Threads here.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
