John Saxon 1935 - 2020 RIP

I think we've all seen a film with John Saxon in, during his 66 year career he has notched up 198 acting credits to his name, his final project is currently in production and was due out next year, details a bit sketchy as to whether this will still happen.

John Saxon was born Carmine Orrico in August 1936 to Italian American parents in Brooklyn New York, he studied acting under the world famous acting coach Stella Adler. 

His break came when Hollywood agent Henry Wilson spotted one of Orrico's modelling photos, he took the still teenage Orrico to LA and changed his name to John Saxon.

Once in LA Saxon was signed as a contract actor to Universal Pictures and his prolific career began!

During his early career John Saxon did a lot of TV movies and also loads TV series like The Dick Powell Show, Burke's Law, Dr. Kildare, The Time Tunnel, Bonanza, Ironside, The Virginian and Kung Fu!

It would take too long to go through everything that John Saxon has appeared in so I'll just cover some of his higher profile work and some of my favorites.

In 1973 he starred in the classic Enter the Dragon with the legendary Bruce Lee, Saxon was already a friend on Lee's, as well as his student! 

Saxon was proficient in Judo and Shotokan Karate, though not to the level of his co-stars but enough to get by.

One of my favorite scenes in Enter the Dragon involving Saxon is his fight with Bolo Yeung, brutal.

In 1974 he starred in Black Christmas as the police Lt in this early entry to the slasher genre, it is well worth a watch and a definite good Christmas movie to get you into the seasonal spirit!

In the late 70's Saxon went to Italy and did a few Giallo/cop exploitation films like Cross Shot, Death Dealers and Tre Soldi e la Donna di Classe, these are all pretty standard faire for the time.

In 1980 Saxon did his part for the Video Nasties and appeared in Cannibal Apocalypse, I covered this in one of my previous blogs.

Also in 1980 he played one of his most over the tops roles, and that's saying something, when he played Sador in Battle Beyond the Stars, it's sort of a Magnificent Seven in space, not sort of, is, in fact Robert Vaughn plays virtually the same character! 

1982 saw Saxon star in the fantastically wonderful Dario Argento's Tenebre, love this movie, everyone should watch it, Giallo at it's best!

So we go from the sublime to the ridiculous with Prisoners of the Lost Universe, he plays the brutal warlord Kleel who ends up battling the heroes that are transported from a parallel universe seeming just to mess with his plans!

The 80's & 90's also saw him star in A Nightmare on Elm Street, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and Wes Craven's New Nightmares, in which he played himself!

Most of his later projects were bit parts or B Movies really, which is a shame, but he was at least always in demand and at least he did manage to land a few roles in Murder She Wrote!

Rest In Peace John Saxon, you've left a legacy for us all to enjoy!