Víctor Israel(1929-2009)
- Actor
Victor Israel was one of the most prolific and ubiquitous, yet
anonymous, often overlooked and hence underrated character actors in
Spanish film history. Born on June 13th in 1929 in Barcelona, Cataluna,
Spain, Israel attended the Escuela de actores de la Ciudad Condal. He
began acting in films in the early 1960s. Short and dumpy, with a
plain, round, pudgy face, thinning hair, medium height and build,
snaggle teeth, a benign, humble, unassuming demeanor, and wide, moist,
dark saucer eyes, Israel frequently portrayed ordinary working class
types, timid cowards, men of the cloth, and meek victims. He soon began
making frequent appearances in rugged action films and gritty Italian
spaghetti Westerns; he has an especially memorable uncredited part as a
weary sergeant at a rundown Confederate fort who
Lee Van Cleef talks to in
Sergio Leone's magnificent
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
(The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, ). In the late 1960s and up until the
mid-'80s, Israel acted in an enjoyable slew of spooky horror features
and entertainingly trashy exploitation fare. Among his more notable
roles are a creepy handyman in
La residencia (1969) (The House
That Screamed); a slimy, greedy, unctuous cemetery caretaker in
Necrophagus (1971) (Graveyard of
Horror); a craven coachman in
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971);
a whistling train baggage handler in the fantastic
Pánico en el Transiberiano (1972); a near
deaf, vaguely menacing innkeeper in
El monte de las brujas (1973)
(The Witches' Mountain); a despicable and untrustworthy sniveling wimp
nightclub owner in the splendidly sleazy
Ricco (1973) (The Mean Machine); a scruffy,
spineless mountain trail guide in the outrageous
La maldición de la bestia (1975)
(Night of the Howling Beast); a zombie priest in
Virus (1980) (Hell of the Living Dead);
and a boozy dock night watchman in the laughably lousy
Serpiente de mar (1985) (The Sea
Serpent). Israel continued to act in both movies and TV shows alike
well into his 70s. He died at age 80 from natural causes on September
19, 2009 in Spain.
