Epitome of doe-eyed devilment
Shane Briant Actor BORN AUGUST 17, 1946 – DIED MAY 27, 2021, AGED 74
WITH HIS baby-face looks and doe eyes, Shane Briant brought an extra chill to horror movies as audiences anticipated what malevolence he would unleash on an unsuspecting world.
Film fans may not recall his features as clearly as Christopher Lee’s or Peter Cushing’s, but for horror enthusiasts, Briant was known for conveying evil with subtle gestures and a beguiling smile.
He appeared in four Hammer classics, including the 1974 film Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell alongside Cushing and David Prowse, who went on to star as Darth Vader in the hugely successful StarWars franchise.
During filming, Briant who was playing a surgeon trying to stop Frankenstein, looked at Prowse’s costume and said that at least his deformed-looking feet looked good. After a tense pause, Prowse told him: “The feet are my own.”
Briant was born in London to Elizabeth, a journalist and actress, and Keith, a poet and author who worked in Germany as the press officer for the British Army of the Rhine. The actor spent his early years in Germany before the family returned to London. Tragically, his dad died when Shane was just 16.
Thanks to financial support from one of his mother’s friends, he was able to study law at Trinity College Dublin. Discovering a love of acting, he joined the Trinity Players and went on to play Hamlet at Dublin’s Eblana Theatre.
After impressing a director, he landed a role in a television adaptation of The Picture Of Dorian Gray.
Although Hollywood beckoned, Briant preferred to stay in Britain to work and felt very at home in the Hammer House of movie making.When asked to describe his usual day at work, he replied with a straight face: “I have to run after gorgeous girls, wrestle them to the ground, tear off their flimsy blouses and strangle them.” Many horror fans felt his finest moments were when he acted alongside Peter Cushing.
Briant said of his Hammer Horror films: “It’s an honour to be considered among a family that includes Fisher, Lee, Cushing, Pitt. Hammer films are cinema history, so, in a way, I shall live on too.”
The actor also appeared in The Sweeney, Van Der Valk and The Naked Civil Servant.
He had eight novels published – seven in Australia where he lived with wife Wendy, and one in the United States.
He died following a long illness.