Barbara Steele

For the Scottish-South African suffragette, see Barbara Steel.

Barbara Steele (born 29 December 1937)^[1] is an English actress and producer, known for starring in Italian gothic horror films of the 1960s. She has been referred to as the "Queen of All Scream Queens"^[2] and "Britain's first lady of horror".^[3] She played the dual role of Asa and Katia Vajda in Mario Bava's landmark film Black Sunday (1960), and starred in The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962), The Long Hair of Death (1964), and Castle of Blood (1964).

Barbara Steele
Steele in a 1965 publicity photo
Born	(1937-12-29) 29 December 1937 (age 87) Birkenhead, Cheshire, England
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Alma mater	Chelsea College of Arts University of Paris
Occupations	Actress producer
Years active	1958–present
Spouse	James Poe ​ ​ (m. 1969; div. 1978)​
Children	1

Additionally, Steele had supporting roles in Federico Fellini's 8½ (1963), David Cronenberg's Shivers (1975), Joe Dante's Piranha and Louis Malle's Pretty Baby (both 1978), and appeared on television in the 1991 TV series Dark Shadows. She won a Primetime Emmy Award for producing the American television miniseries War and Remembrance (1988–89). Steele appeared in several films in the 2010s, including a lead role in The Butterfly Room (2012) and supporting role in Ryan Gosling's Lost River (2014).

Early life

Steele was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire.^[4] She studied art at the Chelsea Art School and in Paris at the Sorbonne.^[4] Before her film career, Steele acted on stage and also worked as a model.

Career

Early work

Steele was signed to a contract by the Rank Organisation. She appeared in several minor film roles during the late 1950s, including in the BAFTA-winning Sapphire (where she appeared opposite future Black Sunday co-star John Richardson) and Upstairs and Downstairs.

In 1960, her contract was sold to 20th Century Fox. She guest starred on an episode of the ABC series, Adventures in Paradise, and was cast as the female lead opposite Elvis Presley in the Western film Flaming Star (1960). However, after one week of principal photography, Steele left the production and was replaced by Barbara Eden. Author Adam Victor writes in The Elvis Encyclopaedia that she was fired because studio executives thought her British accent was too pronounced.^[5] However, Steele claimed she quit over a disagreement with director Don Siegel.^[6] Regardless, a March 1960 Screen Actors Guild strike led Steele to abandon her Fox contract.^[7]

Italians films and stardom

Steele travelled to Italy, with the hopes of working with director Federico Fellini. Soon after her arrival, she was cast in her breakout part, the dual roles of Asa and Katia Vajda in Mario Bava's Black Sunday. There are two accounts describing how Steele came to be cast in the film: one suggests that Bava, while perusing through head shots of British actors under contract at Fox, selected Steele from these photos.^[7] Steele, however, recalled that Bava tracked her down after being captivated by photos of her in a Life magazine photoshoot.^[8] Bava later commented that Steele "had the perfect face for my films".^[7]

The success of Black Sunday launched Steele to overnight stardom and defined her status as a scream queen. She would star in a string of Italian horror films throughout the decade, including Riccardo Freda's The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962) and The Ghost (1963); Antonio Margheriti's The Long Hair of Death and Castle of Blood (both 1964), Terror-Creatures from the Grave and Nightmare Castle (both 1965).

She also starred in American director Roger Corman's adaptation of The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story of the same title, The She Beast (1966) and the British film Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968).

Steele guest starred in television shows including the spy drama, Danger Man (aka Secret Agent) starring Patrick McGoohan in 1965. In 1961, she appeared as Phyllis in the "Beta Delta Gamma" episode of CBS's Alfred Hitchcock Presents. She also had an supporting role in Fellini's 8½ (1963), and in 1966 appeared in the second-season episode of NBC's I Spy, "Bridge of Spies".

Supporting parts and producer

Steele returned to the horror genre in the later 1970s, appearing in three horror films: David Cronenberg's Shivers (1975), Joe Dante's Piranha (1978), and The Silent Scream (1979).^[9] She also played a lesbian prison warden in Jonathan Demme's directorial debut, the women-in-prison film Caged Heat (1974). She had a supporting role in Louis Malle's critically-acclaimed period drama Pretty Baby (1978).

Steele served as associate producer of the TV miniseries, The Winds of War (1983), and was a producer for its sequel, War and Remembrance (1988), for which she shared the 1989 Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special with executive producer Dan Curtis.

Steele was cast as Julia Hoffman in the 1991 remake of the 1960s ABC television series Dark Shadows. In 2010, she was a guest star in the Dark Shadows audio drama, The Night Whispers.

In 2010, actor-writer Mark Gatiss interviewed Steele about her role in Black Sunday for his BBC documentary series A History of Horror.^[10][11] In 2012, Gatiss again interviewed Steele about her role in Shivers for his follow-up documentary, Horror Europa. In 2014, she appeared in Ryan Gosling's directorial debut, the drama-fantasy thriller film Lost River,^[12] in which she portrayed the character Belladonna in a supporting role.^[13]

In 2017, she was inducted into the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards' Hall of Fame.

In 2020, she had a guest role on the animated series Castlevania, voicing the character Miranda.

Personal life

Steele was married to American screenwriter James Poe.^[1] They were married in 1969 and divorced in 1978.^{[citation needed]} Over the same period her focus changed from European (primarily Italian) films to North American ones. They have a son, Jonathan.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Refs.
1958	Houseboat	uncredited minor role	American
	Bachelor of Hearts	Fiona	British	[14]
1959	The 39 Steps	uncredited extra	British
	Sapphire	Student	British	[15]
	The Heart of a Man	Girl (scenes deleted)	British
	Upstairs and Downstairs	Mary	British	[citation needed]
1960	Your Money or Your Wife	Juliet Frost	British	[16]
	Black Sunday	Asa Vajda / Katia Vajda	Italian	[17]
1961	The Pit and the Pendulum	Elizabeth Barnard Medina	American	[18]
1962	The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (L'orribile segreto del Dr. Hichcock)	Cynthia	Italian	[19][19]
	Il capitano di ferro (also known as The Captain of Iron and Revenge of the Mercenaries)	Floriana	Italian	[20][21]
1963	8½	Gloria Morin	Italian	[22]
	The Hours of Love (Le ore dell'amore)	Leila	Italian	[23]
	The Ghost (Lo spettro)	Margaret Hichcock	Italian	[24]
	A Sentimental Attempt (Un tentativo sentimentale)	Silvia	Italian	[citation needed]
1964	Castle of Blood (Danza macabra)	Elisabeth Blackwood	Italian-French	[25]
	I maniaci	Barbara / Signora Brugnoli	Italian	[citation needed]
	Les baisers	Thelma	French. Anthology film: segment 3, "Baiser du Soir"	[citation needed]
	White Voices (Le voci bianche)	Giulia	Italian	[26]
	Tre per una rapina	Barbara Sims (Germany: Anna)	Italian
	The Monocle Laughs (Le monocle rit jaune)	Valérie	French-Italian
	Amore facile	Contessa Bardi-Stucchi	Italian. Segment "Divorzio italo-americano"
	The Long Hair of Death (I lunghi capelli della morte)	Helen Karnstein / Mary Karnstein	Italian	[27]
1965	Terror-Creatures from the Grave (5 tombe per un medium)	Cleo Hauff	Italian	[28]
	Nightmare Castle (also known as The Faceless Monster; Amanti d’Oltretomba)	Muriel and Jenny	Italian	[29]
	Once Upon a Tractor	Lady Clerk	Italian. Short film	[30][31]
	I soldi		Italian	[citation needed]
1966	Young Törless	Bozena	German	[32]
	L'armata Brancaleone	Teodora	Italian	[33][34]
	The She Beast (also known as Revenge of the Blood Beast; Il lago di Satana)	Veronica	British-Italian	[35][36]
	An Angel for Satan (Un angelo per Satana)	Harriet Montebruno / Belinda	Italian	[37]
1967	Barbara et ses fourrures		French. Short film (9 mins)
1968	Curse of the Crimson Altar	Lavinia Morley	British	[38]
	La amante estelar		Italian. Short film (37 mins)
	Handicap		Spanish. Short film
1969	Honeymoon with a Stranger	Carla	American. made-for-TV film (74 mins).
1970	Fermate il mondo... voglio scendere!	Danielle	Italian
1974	Caged Heat	Superintendent McQueen	American	[39]
1975	Shivers	Betts	Canadian	[40]
1977	I Never Promised You a Rose Garden	uncredited, in fantasy sequence	American
1978	Pretty Baby	Josephine	American	[41]
	The Space-Watch Murders		American. made-for-TV film (74 mins).
	Piranha	Dr. Mengers	American	[42]
	La clé sur la porte	Cathy	French
1979	Silent Scream	Victoria Engels	American	[43][44]
1995	Tief oben	Mrs. Wagner	German
1998	The Prophet (also known as The Capitol Conspiracy)	Agent Oakley	American
2008	The Boneyard Collection	Vanessa Peabody	American. Anthology film: segment "Her Morbid Desires"
2012	The Butterfly Room	Ann	American-Italian	[45][46]
2014	Lost River	Grandmother	American	[47][48]
	The Shutterbug Man	Narrator	American. Short animation (5 mins)	[49]
2015	The Mill at Calder's End	The Apparition of the Mill	American. Short film (14 mins)
2016	Le Fantôme	The Widow	American. Advertisement (short film, 8 minutes long)	[50][51][52]
	Minutes Past Midnight	The Apparition of the Mill	American. Anthology film: segment "The Mill at Calder's End"	[citation needed]
2023	Ulalume - A Ballad	Narrator, opening credits	American

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958	Dial 999	Toni Miller	British. Season 1 Episode 6: "Missing Persons"
1960	Adventures in Paradise	Dolores	American. Season 2 Episode 10: "Daughter of Illusion"
1961	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Phyllis	American. Season 7 Episode 6: "Betta Delta Gamma"
1965	Danger Man	Cleo	British. Season 2 Episode 12: "The Man on the Beach"
1966	I Spy	Giana	American. Season 2 Episode 9: "Bridge of Spies"
1972	Night Gallery	The Widow Craighill	American. Season 2 Episode 21: "The Sins of the Fathers"
1983	The Winds of War	Mrs. Stoller	American. Miniseries, also associate producer
1988	War and Remembrance	Elsa MacMahon	American. Miniseries, also producer
1991	Dark Shadows	Dr. Julia Hoffman / Countess Natalie Du Pres	American. Miniseries
1996	Dark Shadows 30th Anniversary Tribute	n/a	American. Television special, as producer
2020	Castlevania	Miranda (voice)	American. Season 3 Episode 7: "Worse Things Than Betrayal"

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
1989	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Miniseries	War and Remembrance	Won
2017	Fangoria Chainsaw Award	Hall of Fame	—	Won