Actor and horror film icon Sid Haig, most notable for his role of ‘Captain Spaulding’ in Rob Zombie’s feature films House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects and the recently released Three From Hell, died Saturday at the age of 80.
(Sid Haig as ‘Captain Spaulding’ in 2003’s House of 1000 Corpses)
In a statement posted to the actor’s Instagram account @sidhaigsays, his widow Susan L. Oberg wrote, “My light, my heart, my true love, my King, the other half of my soul, Sidney, passed from this realm on to the next. He has returned to the Universe, a shining star in her heavens. He was my angel, my husband, my best friend and always will be.”
“He adored his family, his friends and his fans,” she continued. “This came as a shock to all of us. We, as a family, are asking that our privacy and time to mourn be respected.”
Earlier this September, Oberg wrote on Haig’s Instagram that he had suffered an accident and had been admitted to ICU, but didn’t go into detail.
Haig got his start in the industry in 1967 acting opposite horror legend Lon Chaney, Jr. in filmmaker Jack Hills’ cult classic Spider Baby or, The Maddest Story Ever Told, and later appeared in Hill’s blaxploitation flicks Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974), among others. A respected and prolific character actor, Haig worked steadily throughout the 70s and 80s in both film and television, although some of his biggest roles would come later in life. In 1997 Haig’s turns as ‘Judge’ and as ‘Jay’ in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (respectively) brought him into the mainstream eye, and did his portrayal of the murderous clown ‘Captain Spaulding’ in Zombie’s previously mentioned ‘Firefly’ trilogy (and in a smaller role as the cemetery groundskeeper ‘Chester Chesterfield’ in Zombie’s 2007 Halloween redux).
(Sid Haig as ‘Ralph’ alongside Lon Chaney Jr. in 1967’s Spider Baby)
Haig’s last completed film, the Eben McGarr written and directed slasher flick Hanukkah, in which he’ll appear alongside Halloween (1978) actress P.J. Soles, is set for release in 2020.
Filmmaker Zombie recently told EW of Haig’s reduced screen time in Three From Hell, “The movie that I prepped to make, and was getting ready to start shooting, it was Captain Spaulding, Otis, and Baby, the three originals. But three weeks out from shooting, I got a call from Sid Haig. He had been in the hospital, and he had just had surgery, and he was now recovering in a rehabilitation facility. I’m like, holy shit, this is a serious business. So, I went to see him, and he had changed drastically from the last time I saw him. Because Sid, he’s big and burly, and now he’s tiny as a skeleton. So, I was like, oh man. I kind of realized, yeah, he’s in rough shape.”
Understanding the importance of Haig’s inclusion in the film, Zombie furthered, “Lionsgate was fine with me sort of sneaking him in one day to shoot as much as I could. It was on me to make sure that nothing went wrong. So I got him in, I shot everything I could shoot.”
In his own Twitter post, Zombie said of Haig’s passing, “Horray for Captain Spaulding. Gone but not forgotten.”
Our sincere condolences to his friends and family from everyone here at Trancas.
Sid Haig (1939-2019)