We lost a great hero of independent cinema today, which unfortunately most fans don’t know. John “Bud” Cardos started his career in the film business back in the ’40s with Hal Roach’s Our Gang, and continued on from there, working in just about every part of the industry. He worked in the stunt department, acting, directing, and so much more. As an actor, he worked a lot with Al Adamson, appearing in films like Blood on Dracula’s Castle and Satan’s Sadist (both in 1969), Five Bloody Graves and Horror of the Blood Monsters (both in 1970), and as a director, he gave us Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), The Dark (1979), and Mutant (1984).
In April of 2005, Cardos was a guest at Cinema Wasteland, and along with Gary Kent, Greydon Clark, and William Smith, had some of the best stories of the industry. Cardos told the captive audience about the day he worked on a western film one day, falling off a horse about a dozen different times for different parts of the film, as different characters. Never got hurt. Then when he gets home, all he wants to do is just soak in the tub and relax, and end up slipping in the tub and breaking his arm!
Being a fan of some of the lower budgeted films and the people behind it, like Al Adamson, it really shows you how talented and creative some of these people were, that really don’t get the credit. If you’re not familiar with Cardos or his work, do yourself a favor check out some of his work.
Our thoughts go out to his friends and family. Gone, but never to be forgotten.
This Oscar and Tony winning actor is one of those few talents that not only played some very serious roles, but also could warm your heart with a great performance. Usually known for playing the villain, such as in the 1984 film Dreamscape, he could also be the hero, like when he battled the vampire Klaus Kinski in Vampire in Venice (1988). No matter what production, be brought class. He did appear in quite a few other genre titles, such as Wolf (1994) and even Dracula 2000 (2000), and of course the sci-fi epic Starcrash (1978). 
In my favorite segment, of one of my all time favorite films, Hal Holbrook played one of my favorite characters, brow-beated Henry Northrup, married to the one and only Wilma aka “just call me Billie”, played wonderfully by Adrienne Barbeau. Of course the movie is Creepshow (1982). I knew of Holbrook before that, from John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980), another top favorite of mine, but also from a lot of appearances on television and movies. He was an actor that no matter what he was in, or the role he was portraying, his presence would up the quality of the production. He was always just a treat to watch perform, being one of those actors who could give you that warm smile but with a glare that could chill you to the bone.
Okay 2021… not a good way to start out. Not even a week in and now this? This one stings.
You don’t need to be a filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, or even makeup artist to have an effect on the film industry. When you’re a writer that is constantly waving the flag of cult and obscure, and just plain fun and crazy cinema, you are doing wonders for the genre. And this week, we lost one of those people.
And we lose yet another movie icon. Yesterday, we lost the actor to give physical life to one of cinema’s greatest villains, Darth Vader from the original Star Wars trilogy, David Prowse. Being a huge fan of that series, I had learned all of the main actors’ names, so I knew who Prowse was at the time. But it wasn’t until years later, when I started down my path of the horror genre, that I realized his connection to Hammer Films, as well as the many other things he had worked on.
These posts are always tough to do. It is with great sadness that we have found out that Daria Nicolodi has passed away today, age the age of 70. One cannot be a fan of Italian cinema and not know of her work, both in front of and behind the camera. From her appearance in Dario Argento’s Deep Red (1975), Tenebre (1982), to Opera (1987), as well as co-writing Suspiria (1977), one of the best horror films ever committed to film, she has definitely made her mark.
Writer and columnist Joe Kane, more known under his long time pseudonym The Phantom of the Movies, passed away on November 1st, at the age of 73. Being a lifelong movie fan, he was one of those that strived to inform other movie fans of all the wonderful titles out there waiting to be discovered. One of his favorite quotes was “Keep Watching the Screens!”
When growing up in the early ’70s, when much of your time is spent in front of the television, you see a lot of actors and actresses over the years. Some stick in your head more than others. Diana Rigg was one of those actresses. Probably best known for either her role as Emma Peel in the British TV show The Avengers, where she appeared from 1965 to 1968, or the fact that she was the only actress to become Mrs. James Bond, in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), as well as more recently appearing in the series Game of Thrones (2013-2017). No matter what she was in, even in a personal favorite of mine, The Great Muppet Caper (1981), she was always memorable.
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