Ingrid Pitt's Voice From The Grave

Explaining the enigma of Ingrid Pitt:
Horror star who survived the Nazi horror

By Jud Newborn, co-author of Sophie Scholl and the White Rose

Actress and cult figure Ingrid Pitt, who died suddenly in London on November 23, 2010 at age 73, was best known and by many adored as "The Queen of Scream" in British horror films of the early 1970's. Her life story is nothing if not confounding and, to some, bizarre.

In the BBC's obituary -- just one of a surprising avalanche appearing worldwide -- Michael Hearn, a historian of Hammer Films, for whom the star worked, described her as "a warm but stubbornly enigmatic figure."

Now Pitt, with the help of the film team of which she was part, will have the opportunity to explain her secret, fittingly, from the grave.

The enigma she embodied can be summed up neatly: how could a woman who experienced the worst horrors of the Holocaust from ages 5 to 8 give herself over so fully to sexualized, violent horror roles? I am serving as historical adviser, co-writer and co-producer of a innovative, animated short biopic about Pitt's experiences in the Holocaust, Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest.

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Who is Ingrid Pitt?

By Robert Michael "Bobb" Cotter,
author of Ingrid Pitt, Queen of Horror: The Complete Career (McFarland & Co.)

This world lost Ingrid Pitt on November 23rd, 2010, and it lost so much more than the cinema's most famous female vampire, it lost a woman whose life could have been a film in itself. Movie fans knew Ingrid as an indelible screen presence, with a devotion to those fans matched only by their devotion to her. Those fans call her "The Queen of Horror," a title which she would personally dispute, yet fully embrace -- as much as she would embrace the role her family knew her best for, which was that of a loving wife, mother, and grandmother. She is one of the most beloved figures of cult cinema, but what is it about her that inspires such a devoted fan base? Hers is the archetypal rags-to-riches story, yet what makes her story different is not simply the riches she earned as a result of her fame, but the riches of understanding of the human condition. And so, while there is the artifice of celebrity, behind it all was a very real person which kept the artifice from ever truly becoming artificial. But, as we shall see, it really never could have been any other way. Because for every action there is a reaction, and Ingrid's actions and reactions, both right and wrong, shaped her life -- a life which nothing in the artifice indicated her incredible struggle, every step of the way, to achieve it.

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Further reading

Official website: Pitt of Horror
Wikipedia entry
IMDB listing
Obituary from The Guardian
Obituary from The New York Times