Donald Henry Pleasence

 Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE (October 5, 1919 –February 2, 1995)

His best known film roles include psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis in Halloween (1978) and four of its sequels, the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967), RAF Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe in The Great Escape (1963), SEN 5241 in THX 1138 (1971), Clarence "Doc" Tydon in Wake in Fright (1971), and the President of the United States in Escape from New York (1981). During World War 2, he served in the British Royal Air Force as aircraft wireless-operator with No. 166 Squadron in Bomber Command, with which he flew almost sixty raids against the Axis over occupied Europe. On August 31, 1944, Lancaster NE112, in which he was a crew member, was shot down during an attack upon Agenville, and he was captured and imprisoned in the German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft . After the war and his release, he was discharged from the R.A.F. in 1946. Pleasence made his big-screen debut with The Beachcomber (1954). Some notable early roles include Parsons in 1984 (1956), and minor roles opposite Alec Guinness in Barnacle Bill (1957) and Dirk Bogarde in The Wind Cannot Read (1958). He also appeared as the mild-mannered and good natured POW forger Colin Blythe in the film The Great Escape (1963). During the early 1960s, Pleasence recorded several children's-story records on the Atlas Record label. These were marketed as the Talespinners series in the United Kingdom. They were also released in the United States as Tale Spinners for Children by United Artists. The stories included Don Quixote and the Brave Little Tailor. Pleasence was nominated four times for the Tony Award for best performance by a leading actor in a Broadway play: in 1962 for Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, in 1965 for Jean Anouilh's Poor Bitos, in 1969 for Robert Shaw's The Man in the Glass Booth, and in 1972 for Simon Gray's Wise Child.

Pleasence married four times and had five daughters from his first three marriages. On February 2,1995, Pleasence died at age 75 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, from complications of heart failure following heart valve replacement surgery. His remains were cremated.