This Day in Horror History: Happy Birthday A. Michael Baldwin
Josh Millican
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Happy Birthday… Boooooy!
Horror fans will always have a soft spot in our dark hearts for A. Michael Baldwin, the actor who played Mike in Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm “Phranchise” (except for Part 2, which is weird–but that’s a conversation for another day). Alongside Reggie (played by Reggie Banister), Mike played an interdimensional/interplanetary game of cat and mouse with Angus Scrimm’s iconic Tall Man!
If it’s been a while, or if you’ve yet to explore the unique madness that is Phantasm, check out the trailer and synopsis for Part 1 below.
Synopsis:
The residents of a small town have begun dying under strange circumstances, leading young Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) to investigate. After discovering that the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), the town’s mortician, is killing and reanimating the dead as misshapen zombies, Mike seeks help from his older brother, Jody (Bill Thornbury), and local ice cream man Reggie (Reggie Bannister). Working together, they try to lure out and kill the Tall Man, all the while avoiding his minions and a deadly silver sphere.
Trivia:
Universal Picture’s executives didn’t want him to reprise his role as Mike in Phantasm II (1988) because he had been out of the movie business for too long. Don Coscarelli strongly supported him and even brought him in to audition for the part, but it was ultimately given to James Le Gros. (Source)
The idea to create Phantasm came about when Reggie Bannister approached Don Coscarelli with the idea to adapt Ray Bradbury’s novel, Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), which was to star A. Michael Baldwin and Dan McCann from Kenny & Company (1976). However, the two learned that very week that Bradbury had sold the novel’s rights to Disney, and so Coscarelli sought an idea for a similar type of project.
A. Michael Baldwin was born on this day in 1963 and, today, all of us at Dread Central wish him a very Happy Birthday.
Categorized:News This Day in Horror
