Halloween (1978)
John Carpenter's 1978 slasher template. Michael Myers in mask, Jamie Lee Curtis debut.
Donald Pleasence made more than two hundred films and television appearances, and the bald head and pale eyes meant he was cast almost exclusively as either a frightened man or a dangerous one.
Doctor Loomis in Halloween is the enduring one, a psychiatrist who has concluded his patient is simply evil and who spends the film trying to make anyone believe it. He returned for four sequels.
The Great Escape gave him the forger going blind, drawn from his own experience as a prisoner of war after being shot down over France.
He also played Blofeld in You Only Live Twice, which fixed the character’s appearance for parody permanently.