Gunnar Hansen
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Gunnar Hansen (b. January 4, 1947) is an actor best known for playing Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974).
Hansen was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, and moved to Maine in the USA when he was five. He lived in Maine till he was eleven, when his family moved to Texas, where he went to high school, and then, to the University of Texas at Austin. He majored in English and mathematics, there and then went to graduate school in Scandinavian Studies and English.
His first job out of high school was as a computer operator, before he started doing theater work during college. He also was a football player during high school, and for a while a bar bouncer. In 1973, just after finishing graduate school, Hansen heard that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was being made in Austin and decided to try out. He got the part of Leatherface the masked killer in the movie and made movie history.
The movie went on to become a cult classic, but Hansen decided not to continue acting (not before appearing in a cheap horror movie titled The Demon Lover, though), instead choosing to pursue a writing career. So, in 1975, Hansen after one more year of graduate school, moved back to Maine and started writing.
After working, for a while, writing (and occasionally editing) for magazines and writing books, Hansen got back in to acting in 1987, appearing in the trashy and cheesy horror spoof "Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers", and has since appeared in 17 films of about the same quality (the possible exception being the 2004 film Chainsaw Sally). Hansen's new acting career, though, is a side project and he continues to write books. He has written some film scripts too and now writes and directs documentary films.
He was recently asked to reprise the role of Leatherface in the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which he declined.
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