The Horror genre recently lost another one of its icons.

I think it’s fair to say that this one hit Horror fans hard.

Sadly on the 9th of November news spread like wildfire that beloved Horror icon Tony Todd had passed away from natural causes from a long illness at the age of 69. What followed has been an outppouring of love for him from the Horror community.

Like many of you reading this I was first introduced to Tony Todd by watching the iconic 1992 release, “Candyman”. A film that has terrified millions of people worldwide and continues to do so, I’m sure it will for many more years too.

I remember the first time I saw “Candyman”, it was a VHS that was one of my friends parents. The cover alone made me nervous, as some one who gets squeamish with eyes, seeing a bee on an eye made me feel so uncomfortable and more apprehensive to watch it.

After being, well essentially peer pressured, into watching the film it introduced me to a voice that would haunt my nightmares for years afterwards. That bass filled deep voice and the slow paced delivery of his lines was enough to put fear in my heart.

Like any Horror fan, I went back for more and “Candyman” would quickly become a firm favourite of mine, as well as millions of others. I can honestly say that I’ve never met anyone who didn’t enjoy the film, only people too scared to watch it.

But again, back to that voice, it became a trademark of his and rightly so. He knew exactly how to use it depending on which role he was playing, whether it be menacing, frightening or even sarcastic and humourus, he knew what to do.

That voice would also land him a ton of voice work. Whether it be for video games such as “Call Of Duty”, “Star Trek” and many more. Also a lot of animated TV shows from the likes of Marvel and DC and even everyones favourite, “Scooby Doo”.

Now, we all know he was most well known for his role as ‘Candyman’ but it wasn’t his only role. He was also a favourite for fans of the “Final Destination” franchise and even in the world of television for his roles in “Star Trek”, “Stargate” and more.

I’d like to talk about some of his other characters that are favourites of mine, first one being that of ‘Reverend Zombie’ in the first two “Hatchet” films, this role let him express his humorous side and was great fun for fans to see.

A role, and film actually, I feel deserves more recognition is that of crime boss ‘Duke’ in the 2012 film “Sushi Girl”. He truly made that role his own and seemed to have a ton of fun doing it, plus watching him and Mark Hamill go at it on screen was just fantastic.

Another role I have to talk about is that of ‘Ben’ in the 1990 remake of the George A. Romero classic, “Night Of The Living Dead”, not only was this his first Horror film role but it was his first lead starring role and watching the film you’d never have guessed it.

Taking on the iconic role of one the very few leading black characters in a film, in what is also a truly iconic film, let’s just say he really handled the pressure of the role extremely well. He grabbed the chance he was given and truly made it his own.

As I said earlier, he was a firm favourite amongst fans despite playing a lot of villains he was known for being a truly nice guy. He had a firm reputation as someone who often took time to chat with fans, answer their questions or pose for photos with them.

I can honestly say I’ve never heard a bad word about Tony Todd and I’m not just saying that, it’s no wonder he was requested a lot to appear at conventions. Hearing great stories from fans of their interactions with him has been truly both heartwarming and heartbreaking.