Debbie Rochon to Be Honored with Ingrid Pitt Award for Excellence and Perseverance in Horror
Steve Barton
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Debbie Rochon is an incredible ambassador for the horror genre and one of the most recognizable faces in the world of indies. Rochon has made an incredible career in horror and is once again being recognized for her accomplishments!
Rochon is the inaugural Ingrid Pitt Memorial Award winner, an accolade named for horror star Ingrid Pitt, who worked in over 30 films. She co-starred with Sir Christopher Lee in The Wicker Man (1973) and The House that Dripped Blood (1970). She also starred in Hammer’s Countess Dracula and with horror legend Peter Cushing in Hammer’s The Vampire Lovers. She passed away too soon in 2011. The Ingrid Pitt Memorial Award is presented in conjunction with The Estate of Ingrid Pitt, filmmaker/producer Kevin Sean Michaels and event coordinator Stacy Pippi Hammon.
Debbie Rochon is the perfect honoree for this award. Congrats, D-Ro!
From the Press Release
The very first Ingrid Pitt Memorial Award represents a tip of the hat to a horror star–and its recipient is Debbie Rochon. Much like Pitt in the 1970’s with films Countess Dracula and The Vampire Lovers, the award acknowledges a person that has supported the horror genre and embraced it overcoming many obstacles, breaking barriers and being a leader in its industry.
Currently a long-form documentary film about Ingrid Pitt’s life and career is being produced by Michaels (Vampira: The Movie, The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels), which will be a combination of live action and animation with contributions from student animators and renowned professional animators all over the world. It will be released in installments. The first installment was called Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest, animated by 10-year-old Perry S. Chen with storyboards by two-time Academy Award nominee Bill Plympton. The short film qualified for an Academy Award nomination last year.
Last October a film festival in memory of Pitt was organized by Ingrid’s husband, Tony Rudlin, and The Official Ingrid Pitt Fan Club in the Old Town Quarter of Hastings, England. It was also the official launch of Ingrid’s novel Dracula Who…?, published by Avalard. A Queen of Horror was announced, Sarah Bones, who will be the ambassador and host for future events, including an event in the spring in New York. The Ingrid Pitt Memorial is in the series of such tributes.
“I spent five years with Ingrid herself discussing her life’s work and legacy. She was an actor’s actor,” said Michaels. “That meant the most to her. She always felt that her work in genre films was not highlighted enough. She wanted to be remembered as an artist. It’s all about taking risks and new ground. This award honors that memory and its spirit. We are presenting to a horror star, as Ingrid was, to celebrate women in the horror movie genre, keep her memory in our hearts and to aid further projects to come that have that same energy and positivity,” Michaels added.
Rochon is a veteran actress that has appeared in a multitude of films including Tromeo and Juliet (1996), Terror Firmer (1999), American Nightmare (2002), HP Lovecraft’s Colour from the Dark (2009), The Theatre Bizarre (2011), Sick Boy (2012), and Rudyard Kipling’s Mark of the Beast (2012). 2013 will see the release of Exhumed, Wrath of the Crows, Solid State and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart. Rochon also co-hosted the Fangoria Radio Show from 2006 to 2010 with Dee Snider and Tony Timpone, covering horror news in a talk show setting. Her writing credits include her current column in Fangoria Magazine, Diary of the Deb. She is currently in post-production on her feature directorial debut, Model Hunger, starring Lynn Lowry, Tiffany Shepis and Carmine Capobianco.
“Being honored with such a prestigious accolade is a truly humbling experience. I have long admired and respected the contributions Ingrid Pitt has made to the genre, and to be a recipient of an award attached to her name is the highest form of recognition for any woman in this field to achieve,” said Rochon.
“I think there is no doubt whatsoever that an award with such qualifications as the Ingrid Pitt Memorial Award represents should be established by honoring the woman whose name is associated with the very definition of the award’s purpose to a ‘T.’ Debbie Rochon is that woman,” said Hammon. “They both experienced incomprehensible hardships during their childhoods and have a shared passion for their work, both acting in the horror genre and writing,” Hammon added.
The Ingrid Pitt Memorial Award will be presented on Saturday, January 12, 2013, at the Cella Art Gallery, 11135 Weddinton Street, Suite 112, North Hollywood, CA 91601. The Cella Art Gallery is a contemporary fine art gallery centrally located in the NoHo Arts District that loves to support the independent art and horror communities.
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