Celebrity Biographies
Hazel Court
Hazel Court was a British actress considered one of the Scream Queens (queens of the scream) of the late 50s and early 60s. At that time, she starred in legendary titles of the fantasy horror genre under the orders of two of the greats: Terence Fisher and Roger Corman. She shared the screen with Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Jack Nicholson. The 82-year-old interpreter died on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 in California, after suffering a heart attack.
Born in Birmingham (Great Britain) on February 10, 1926, Hazel Court was a film lover who was always very clear that she wanted to be an actress. When she finished her drama studies, she was recruited by Arthur Rank’s company. In the mid-40s, the actress starred in titles like Meeting at Dawn , an adventure film. However, her first big success was The Curse of Frankenstein , by Terence Fisher , where she was the cousin of Frankenstein ( Peter Cushing ), in the version of the British producer Hammer, where the monster was the incomparable Christopher Lee . She reprized with Fisher and Lee in the unforgettable The Man Who Defied Death .
Converted by those titles into a small icon of fantastic cinema, it was typecast in the genre. She moved to the United States, where the king of B-movies, Roger Corman , recruited her as the lead in several of his famous adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe works . The first was The Obsession , together with Ray Milland , and then he headlined the poster for The Raven (1963) , famous for its unrepeatable duel of magicians at the end, and although it had little Poe (it is supposed to be inspired by the poem of the same name) , had the teacher Richard Matheson as a screenwriter. The cast was undoubtedly a true ‘dream team’ for horror fans, as Court was joined by no less thanVincent Price , Peter Lorre , Boris Karloff , and Jack Nicholson . The last installment in the saga for Court was the haunting The Masque of the Red Death , again with Vincent Price. In the American continent, Hazel Court made a career on the small screen, as she took part in such memorable series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents , In the Limits of Reality , Bonanza , Jim West and Mission Impossible .
She married the Irish actor Dermot Walsh ( The Wicked Lady ), but later divorced and remained together with the actor and director Don Taylor , until his death in 1998. Taylor is also an old acquaintance with fans of fantastic cinema, because he directed Escape from the Planet of the Apes , The End of the Countdown , and Damien’s Curse , sequel to The Omen . A cameo in the third installment of the saga, Damien’s End (1981), was her last job for Hazel Court, who had remained very active, especially on television until 1972.