Tod Slaughter
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Tod Slaughter (19 March 1885 - 19 February 1956) was an English actor, best known for playing over-the-top maniacs in macabre film adaptations of Victorian melodramas.
Born as Norman Carter Slaughter in Newcastle, he made his way onto the stage in 1905. After a brief interruption to serve during the war, Slaughter resumed his career and returned to the stage, and finally in 1934 at age 50 into motion pictures. Usually cast as a villain, his first film was Maria Marten or Murder in the Red Barn (1935) a Victorian melodrama filmed cheaply with Slaughter as the obvious bad-guy. Slaughter’s next film role was as Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (1936) directed and produced by George King, whose partnership with Slaughter was continued in the subsequent shockers: The Crimes of Stephen Hawke (1936); The Ticket of Leave Man (1938); The Face at the Window (1939) and Crimes at the Dark House (1940).
There were, however, some non-melodramatic roles in his career. He was a supporting player in 1937's The Song of the Road and Darby and Joan. In 1938's Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror he played the head of an international gang of super-villains.
After the war Slaughter resumed melodramatic roles and starred in The Curse of the Wraydons (1946), in which he played the legendary Victorian bogeyman Spring-Heeled Jack, and The Greed of William Hart (1948) based on the murderous career of Burke and Hare. His last two films were each three episodes of the television series Inspector Morley cobbled together for theatrical release.
Still performing on the stage almost to the very end, Slaughter died of coronary thrombosis. After his death following a performance of Maria Marten his work slipped almost completely into obscurity.
