Barbara Steele
Encyclopedia
Barbara Steele is an English film actress
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

. She is best known for starring in Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 gothic horror
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...

 films of the 1960s. Her breakthrough role came in Italian director Mario Bava
Mario Bava
Mario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...

's Black Sunday (1960), now hailed as a classic.

Steele starred in a string of horror films, including The Horrible Dr. Hichcock
The Horrible Dr. Hichcock
The Horrible Dr. Hichcock is a 1962 Italian horror film directed by Riccardo Freda and written by Ernesto Gastaldi. The film stars Barbara Steele and Robert Flemyng....

(1962); The Ghost, directed by Riccardo Freda
Riccardo Freda
Riccardo Freda was an Egyptian-born Italian film director. Best known for his horror and thriller movies, Freda had no great love for the horror films he was assigned, but rather favored the epic sword and sandal pictures...

 and Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...

's 1961 adaptation
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961 film)
The Pit and the Pendulum is a 1961 horror film directed by Roger Corman, starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, and Luana Anders. The screenplay by Richard Matheson was based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story of the same name. Set in 16th century Spain, the story is about a young...

 of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

's short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 The Pit and the Pendulum
The Pit and the Pendulum
"The Pit and the Pendulum" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842 in the literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843. The story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. The...

. She guested on various British television shows including the spy drama Danger Man
Danger Man
Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...

starring Patrick McGoohan
Patrick McGoohan
Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born actor, raised in Ireland and England, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s television series Danger Man , and The Prisoner, which he co-created...

. In 2010, she was a guest star in the Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows is a gothic soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. The show was created by Dan Curtis. The story bible, which was written by Art Wallace, does not mention any supernatural elements...

audio drama The Night Whispers
The Night Whispers
Dark Shadows: The Night Whispers is a 2010 Big Finish Productions original dramatic reading based on the long-running American horror soap opera series Dark Shadows.-Cast:*Barnabas Collins - Jonathan Frid*Willie Loomis - John Karlen...

.

In 2010, actor-writer Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....

 interviewed Steele about her role in Black Sunday (1960) for his BBC documentary series A History of Horror
A History of Horror
A History of Horror is a 2010 three-part documentary series made for the BBC by British writer and actor Mark Gatiss...

.

Other

  • R. H. W. Dillard
    R. H. W. Dillard
    Richard Henry Wilde Dillard is an American poet, author, critic, and translator.Born in Roanoke, Virginia, Dillard is best known as a poet. He is also highly-regarded as a writer of fiction and critical essays, as well as one of the screenwriters for the cult classic Frankenstein Meets the Space...

     entitled his first collection of poems The Day I Stopped Dreaming About Barbara Steele (1966).

Partial filmography

  • Upstairs and Downstairs
    Upstairs and Downstairs
    Upstairs and Downstairs is a 1959 British comedy drama film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Michael Craig, Anne Heywood, Mylène Demongeot, Claudia Cardinale, James Robertson Justice, Joan Sims, Joan Hickson and Sid James...

    (1959)
  • Your Money or Your Wife
    Your Money or Your Wife
    Your Money or Your Wife is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Anthony Simmons and starring Donald Sinden, Peggy Cummins and Richard Wattis.-Cast:* Donald Sinden - Pelham Butterworth* Peggy Cummins - Gay Butterworth* Richard Wattis - Hubert Fry...

    (1960)
  • Black Sunday (1960)
  • The Pit and the Pendulum
    The Pit and the Pendulum (1961 film)
    The Pit and the Pendulum is a 1961 horror film directed by Roger Corman, starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, and Luana Anders. The screenplay by Richard Matheson was based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story of the same name. Set in 16th century Spain, the story is about a young...

    (1961)
  • The Horrible Dr. Hichcock
    The Horrible Dr. Hichcock
    The Horrible Dr. Hichcock is a 1962 Italian horror film directed by Riccardo Freda and written by Ernesto Gastaldi. The film stars Barbara Steele and Robert Flemyng....

    (1962)
  • 8½ is a 1963 Italian fantasy film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director...

    (1963)
  • Lo Spettro
    Lo Spettro
    The Ghost is a 1963 Italian horror film directed by Riccardo Freda, using the pseudonym "Robert Hampton". The film stars Barbara Steele and Peter Baldwin. Other titles for the film include The Spectre and Lo Spettro del Dr. Hichcock.- Cast :*Barbara Steele — Margaret Hichcock*Peter Baldwin - Dr....

    (The Ghost) (1963)
  • White Voices
    White Voices
    White Voices is a 1964 Italian comedy film directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile and Massimo Franciosa. It was screened at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition.-Cast:* Paolo Ferrari - Meo* Sandra Milo - Carolina...

    (1964)
  • Castle of Blood (1964)
  • Terror-Creatures from the Grave (1965)
  • Nightmare Castle
    Nightmare Castle
    Nightmare Castle is a 1965 Italian gothic horror film directed by Mario Caiano. The film stars Barbara Steele in dual lead roles, and its music was composed by Ennio Morricone....

    (1965)
  • The She Beast
    The She Beast
    The She Beast is a 1966 British-Italian horror film written and directed by Michael Reeves. The film stars Barbara Steele and Ian Ogilvy...

    (1966)
  • Young Törless
    Young Törless
    Young Törless is a 1966 German film directed by Volker Schlöndorff, adapted from the autobiographical novel The Confusions of Young Törless by Robert Musil. It deals with the sadistic and homoerotic tendencies of a group of boys at an Austrian military academy at the beginning of the 20th...

    (1966)
  • Curse of the Crimson Altar
    Curse of the Crimson Altar
    Curse of the Crimson Altar is a 1968 British horror film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Barbara Steele and Mark Eden. The film was produced by Lewis M. Heyward for Tigon British Film Productions. The film was released as The Crimson Cult in the United States....

    (1968)
  • Caged Heat
    Caged Heat
    Caged Heat is an exploitation film from 1974 of the "women-in-prison" film genre. Caged Heat was written and directed by Jonathan Demme for the New World Pictures company, headed by Roger Corman...

    (1974)
  • Shivers
    Shivers (film)
    Shivers is a 1975 Canadian body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg. Cronenberg won "Best Director" at the 1975 Sitges Film Festival.-Plot:Dr...

    (1975)
  • Piranha (1978)
  • Silent Scream
    Silent Scream (1980 film)
    Silent Scream is a 1980 horror film written by Jim and Ken Wheat, and Wallace E. Bennett, directed by Denny Harris and starring Rebecca Balding, Cameron Mitchell, Barbara Steele and Yvonne De Carlo...

    (1980)
  • Dark Shadows (TV series revival) (1991)

External links

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