Tod Slaughter
Born March 19th, 1885 – Died Feb. 19th, 1956

Slaughter was a late bloomer when it came to movies. He was a stage actor who had been working for years before finally getting the film bug. But even before that, one of the characters that he played frequently, was that of the crazed murdering barber, Sweeney Todd. Before his life was over, it was rumored that he had played the character 4000 times. But the film version where he plays the title character, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936), he really shines. Some say that he may be over acting a bit, but coming from the stage, that is what they were use to. But to me, I think it fits perfectly here in this film.

Slaughter would go on to play in quite a few other dark melodramas, but also continued to do stage work at the same time. He actually died shortly after a performance of Maria Marten, or The Murder in the Red Barn. A performer truly to the end.