You would think that there would be an abundance of amazing contenders from which to compose a favorite top ten list but you’d be wrong. In fact, you won’t find many top marquee names at all playing monsters on the big screen – no Greta Garbo, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Doris Day, Henry Fonda, etc. And when I say monsters, I mean those who are not human in action and appearance. I’m not talking about serial killers (Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs) or grotesque lunatics (Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?) or psychotic femme fatales (Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction) or the Boss From Hell (Nicholas Cage in Vampire’s Kiss) but real creatures – werewolves, zombies, vampires, aliens.

With that in mind, the below list was created under the following criteria: It had to be a film I actually liked and the star in question had to be a well known leading actor or actress (at least at some point in their career, if not when the film was made). The usual suspects like Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Peter Lorre, Barbara Steele, Barbara Shelley and other icons of the horror genre were always considered character actors or supporting players – not leading actors – by Hollywood standards so they were not eligible. On the other hand, international stars such as Klaus Kinski (Nosferatu the Vampyre) are fair game.

One thing became glaring obvious as I struggled to compile a short list. The horror genre has never received much respect from the established press or the industry – look at the tiny number of Oscar nominees in the horror genre – and I think that even to this day there is a stigma attached to playing a monster or being in a horror film if you are a major star. So here is my salute, in no particular order, to the brave, the proud, the few.

Fredric March & Miriam Hopkins in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

1. Fredric March in DR JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931)

This is a high water mark in horror history. Not only did Fredric March win the Best Actor Oscar for his dual role but Rouben Mamoulian’s rendition of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel is still the best and most horrific version. You can argue that Hyde is not a real monster but the bestial side of Dr. Jekyll but he is clearly a nightmare vision of the male id run amok. Miriam Hopkins’ terror seems real and when she’s being pawed by Hyde it makes your skin crawl too. The film’s blatant eroticism, especially in the earlier scenes when Dr. Jekyll first visits Ivy (Hopkins) in her bedroom, makes you realize how much more fun and risque the Pre-Code period was for moviegoers. By the way, the transformation sequences are still thrilling and put the 1941 Spencer Tracy-Lana Turner-Ingrid Bergman remake to shame with its silly Freudian imagery and belabored psychological approach to the story. It’s one of Tracy’s rare misfires and his reliance on lighting effects and facial expressions over elaborate makeup to convey Hyde’s evil essense is more comical than frightening. It was once said that novelist Somerset Maugham, while visiting the set, whispered to director Victor Fleming while studying Tracy’s performance, “Which one is he now, Jekyll or Hyde?”

publicity still of Simone Simon in Cat People (1942)

2. Simone Simon in CAT PEOPLE (1942)

This atmospheric, sensual Val Lewton production with sex kitten Simone Simon being aroused to bloodlust by the supressed tigress within her is pure poetry compared to most fantasy horror films. The movie, directed by Jacques Tourneur, avoids the usual horror cliches and retains an air of mystery and obsession right up to the final frame. The RKO publicity department couldn’t resist altering one of Simon’s publicity photos for the film’s promotion in case anyone didn’t think CAT PEOPLE was a horror film. Studio publicists in the studio era weren’t known for their subtlety.

Nastassja Kinski in Paul Schrader's Cat People (1982)

3. Nastassja Kinski in CAT PEOPLE (1984)

A lot of people hated this Paul Schrader remake but there is a lot to enjoy here if you view it as a time capsule snapshot of early eighties pop culture when Giorgio Moroder and Tangerine Dream were the new film composers, Nastassja Kinski was the sex symbol of the moment and classic movie remakes were not yet an industry standard. Kinski makes an ideal cat girl including a voice that has both a purr and a growl in it. And no one looks as good crawling nude through the underbrush. The New Orleans setting, some welcome comic relief from Ed Begley, Jr. as an ill-fated zookeeper, an appealing, non-traditional leading man performance by John Heard, that pulsating David Bowie theme song “Putting Out the Fire” (scored by Moroder) and some brief but shocking scenes of gore and violence are pluses and so are brief appearances by sexy Annette O’Toole as Heard’s soon to be ex-girlfriend and a cameo by Lynn Lowry as a hooker/leopard bait. The minuses include an absurd coda and the rampant misogyny that seems to run through Schrader’s earlier work.

Humphrey Bogart in The Return of Doctor X

4. Humphrey Bogart in THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X (1939)

It’s just a routine Warner Bros. B-movie programmer and director Vincent Sherman rushes us through the plot in a tidy sixty-two minutes but still manages to generate some suspense and nervous laughter amid the creepy noir-like sets. The real novelty, of course, is seeing Bogie as one of the undead with a fashionable streak of white running through his hair, a sickly, pale complexion and a pet rabbit that he strokes nervously when anxious. In just two years, he would become a major star thanks to his performances in High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon, both 1941. His gain, our loss, because he had an ideal face for horror films and it’s great fun to see him playing a character that projects both menace and tragic grandeur even in a quickie like this.

I'm a mess, ya'll!

5. Sissy Spacek in CARRIE (1976)

This was one of the rare times a horror film received a Best Actress Oscar nomination and Sissy Spacek’s performance was certainly deserving of one. In fact, it’s hard to imagine any other actress who could have elicited the same level of sympathy and audience identification that Spacek achieved with what is really a creepy, pathetic little character as depicted by Stephen King in his novel. When Carrie goes to the prom and the pig’s blood is dumped on her head, her transformation from ugly duckling high school misfit into telekinetic queen of the hop might be justified but she loses her humanity in the process and becomes a real monster. The hand-out-of-the-grave shock ending has been imitated many times but it was always a cheap shot. For my money, the final image of Ronny Cox’s lifeless arm emerging from the ominous river in Deliverance (1971) was a more disturbing “gotcha” moment.

Claude Rains is The Invisible Man

6. Claude Rains in THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933)

Claude Rains is one of the screen’s great character actors, constantly stealing scenes away from his top-billed co-stars, but he’s also had his share of starring roles and this is probably my favorite. It’s also the movie that made him a star due to that commanding and distinctive voice; his physical appearance is limited here to an eerie, heavily bandaged persona that is soon liberated within the film’s brief running time (71 minutes). James Whale’s adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel is a fine mixture of black comedy, tragedy, and a mounting sense of horror as Rains slowly becomes a dangerous megalomaniac, the result of a scientific experiment on himself. The special effects are still quite remarkable for their era.

Danielle Ouimet & Delphine Seyrig (on right) in Daughters of Darkness

7. Delphine Seyrig in DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (1971)

Is there a more elegant, seductive vampiress than Delphine Seyrig in this arthouse horror film from Belgium director Harry Kumel? Set in a deserted seaside resort during the winter, the film follows the arrival of a newlywed couple on their honeymoon who soon cross paths with a mysterious Hungarian countess (Seyrig) and her female companion. The Hunger (1983), with Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon, is a trashy, entertaining variation in the same vein but this one casts a strange spell quite unlike any other vampire film. Seyrig, who died in 1990, appeared in a number of groundbreaking international films – Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad, Luis Bunuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Francois Truffaut’s Stolen Kisses, Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles – as well as Pull My Daisy, the 1959 “Beat Generation” short by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie with narration by Jack Kerouac and appearances by Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Larry Rivers and Peter Orlovsky.  Her cool, aloof beauty is given an ideal showcase in DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS.

I used to be Seth Brundle but now I'm the Brundlefly

8. Jeff Goldblum in THE FLY (1986)

David Cronenberg’s remake of the 1958 sci-fi favorite starring David Hedison is a much more tragic and moving film, mostly due to personable and engaging performances by Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis (they were married less than a year later). The gross factor is also considerably higher, reaching eleven on a one to ten scale. What’s worse than watching your body physically decay and mutate into something horrible as you watch helplessly? Cronenberg is an expert at exploiting our paranoia about the human body. A great modern horror film if you have the stomach for it.

Oliver Reed in The Curse of the Werewolf

9. Oliver Reed in THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (1961)

Once upon a time Oliver Reed was a high profile leading man in the film industry and much in demand by major directors around the world. His real climb to stardom began with his powerhouse role as Bill Sikes in Oliver! (1968) and peaked with roles in Ken Russell’s Women in Love (1969) and The Devils (1971), Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers (1973) & The Four Musketeers (1974) and the film version of the Who’s rock opera Tommy (1975, also directed by Russell). It was a slow, steady downhill ride after that into dreck like Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype (1980) and Spasms (1983) with some bright spots along the way but some of his early work for Hammer Studios still holds up quite well and reveals a promising and intense young dramatic actor. THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF is possibly his best Hammer film prior to Joseph Losey’s The Damned and it’s a fine addition to the lycantropy cinema cannon. Atmospheric, brooding, passionate and tragic, the movie would probably translate well to the stage and make a great opera.

Jack Nicholson & Michelle Pfeiffer in Wolf

10. Jack Nicholson in WOLF (1994)

Yes, it’s another lycantropy-themed movie and it was largely considered a boxoffice disaster upon its release (why it cost $70 million is a bit of a mystery since the makeup effects, though effective, are not that remarkable – maybe the expense was Jack Nicholson’s salary). Yet, WOLF is a fascinating oddity with an exhilarating first half set in the cutthroat corporate world of New York publishing and the dialogue (by Michigan poet/novelist Jim Harrison and former rock critic-turned-screenwriter Wesley Strick [Arachnophobia, Cape Fear]) bristles and pops with malice and cynical humor. Nicholson, as expected, makes a first-rate werewolf and before the whole thing descends into a ridiculous battle for supremacy between Nicholson and his younger rival James Spader, it’s an entertaining and unpredictable ride into darkness.

Jack Nicholson likes the thrill of the hunt

I’m sure I’m forgetting one or two other major actors or actresses in monster roles which I liked enough to include here….but maybe you can help me out.