This Day in Horror History: Happy Birthday Richard O’Brien
Let’s do “The Time Warp” again!
Richard O’Brien isn’t just the actor who played Riff Raff in the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, he wrote the stage play the film is based on! He’s also appeared in Flash Gordon, Shock Treatment, Dark City, Dungeons & Dragons, and Elvira’s Haunted Hills.
Dark City (directed by Alex Proyas) is a horror sleeper definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for something to stream while practicing social distancing. If it’s been a while, or if you’ve yet to experience the film for yourself, check out the trailer and synopsis for Dark City below.
Synopsis:
John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens alone in a strange hotel to find that he is wanted for a series of brutal murders. The problem is that he can’t remember whether he committed the murders or not. For one brief moment, he is convinced that he has gone completely mad. Murdoch seeks to unravel the twisted riddle of his identity. As he edges closer to solving the mystery, he stumbles upon a fiendish underworld controlled by a group of ominous beings collectively known as the Strangers.
Trivia:
When writing The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), he based the character Frank-N-Furter on Alice Cooper. In his original handwritten notes (published in the 1979 play book The Rocky Horror Scrapbook), he described Frank-N-Furter as an “Alice Cooper type Frankenstein.” (The “Dr.” was added for the film.) (Source)
Personal Quote:
“When you do something like Rocky, which is undefinable somehow, it always becomes difficult to lose that. Not that I have any interest in saying goodbye to Rocky. I absolutely adore being involved and a part of something that is really a phenomenon. And I have no problems with that at all. If it overshadows anything else, I can understand completely why and again it doesn’t worry me.” (Source)
Richard O’Brien was born on this day in 1942 and, today, all of us here at Dread Central wish him a very Happy Birthday!
Categorized:News This Day in Horror
