Paul Naschy (born Jacinto Molina on September 6, 1934 in Madrid) is a Spanish movie actor, screenwriter, and director working primarily in horror films. His portrayal of numerous classic horror figures--the wolfman, a hunchback, Count Dracula, a mummy--have earned him recognition as a Spanish Lon Chaney. King Juan Carlos I presented Naschy with Spain's Gold Medal Award for Fine Arts in 2001 in honor of his work, which still continues to this day.
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Werewolf characters
The werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky is Paul Naschy's most famous character. In addition, Paul Naschy also played some other werewolves who were not named Waldemar Daninsky, but were obviously based on the character.
The Waldemar Daninsky series
This series of films is notorious for its retroactive continuity, comic book deaths and other continuity mismatches, with most of the films using new origin stories or recycling large pieces of plot from earlier films in the series. In addition, some films seem to be prequels to others, but without any firm evidence that this is so. The single bridging feature between all the films is the presence of a werewolf named Waldemar Daninsky. In order of release, the films are:
- 1. La Marca del Hombre Lobo (1967)
- 2. Las Noches del Hombre Lobo (1968)
- 3. Los Monstruos del Terror (1970)-- filmed in 1969
- 4. La Noche de Walpurgis (1970)
- 5. La Furia del Hombre Lobo (1972)-- filmed in 1969
- 6. Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo (1972)
- 7. El Retorno de Walpurgis (1973)
- 8. La Maldicion de la Bestia (1975)
- 9. El Retorno del Hombre Lobo (1980)
- 10. La Bestia y la Espada Magica (1983)
- 11. Licántropo (1996)
- 12. Tomb of the Werewolf (2003)
Other werewolf films
Paul Naschy portrayed a werewolf known simply as El Hombre Lobo (translated as "The Werewolf") in a 1982 children's musical horror comedy. Later he played an actor portraying a werewolf and other monsters in a horror film for adults, and later still he played a mad scientist werewolf living in the Amazon rainforest.
Other characters
Paul Naschy starred in many films that did not have werewolves. Most of this work was still in the horror genre.
- Rottweiler (2004)
- El Mariscal del Infierno (1974)
- La Venganza de la Momia (1973)
- Los Ojos Azules de la Muneca Rota (1973)
- La Rebelion de las Muertas (1972)
- El Jorobado de la Morgue (1972)
Fictional Portrayal
Spanish comic-book Iberia Inc. by Carlos Pacheco and Rafael Marín menctioned a fictional movie, Casta de Heroes (directed by Jesús Franco) about Spanish superheroes of the past where Paul Naschy played "the Ogre", a character inspired in lycantropic villain Lince Dorado. Unsatisfied with this portrayal of himself, Lince Dorado arranged for the original to be lost, and no copy of the film is supposed to remain.
References
- Paul Naschy at the Internet Movie Database
- Naschy, Paul. Paul Naschy: Memoirs of a Wolfman. Midnight Marquee Press. ISBN 1-887664-38-6.
