Known for her stunning exotic looks and her complete ownership of the role of Countess Dracula, Ingrid Pitt was more than just a beautiful actress. She was a great and unusual mind, with unrivalled talent and morbid elegance.
Born in Poland in the 1930’s, to a German father and Jewish mother, Ingrid spent three years of her childhood in a Nazi concentration camp. Her family were picked up in 1942, and her and her mother were separated from her father and sister. In interviews she recalled seeing her best friend raped and beaten by Nazi soldiers. When the war was over, her and her mother searched refugee camps across Europe for their lost family members.
At first she played bit parts in several low budget films, but her big break came when she was cast in Elliot Kastner’s WW2 flick, Where Eagles Dare. She claimed that the film remained her favourite of all the film’s she made. “I didn’t have a lead role,” she explained in 2009, “but it was six months solid work with the two giants of the film, Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton.”
Then one night in 1969 after the première of Alfred the Great at Odeon in Leicester Square, Ingrid’s career took it’s biggest step forward. “Everyone had moved on to the hotel for dinner and congratulations. I found myself sitting next to a military looking gent who spent most of the evening shaking hands with anyone who sidled up to the table and touched his forelock. When things simmered down a bit he introduced himself. James Carreras. I dimpled prettily and said I was pleased to meet him. He complimented me on my last film - Where Eagles Dare. I let him enthuse. He also asked me what I was doing next. Number one rule of a 'resting' thespian is never admit you haven't got a raft of producers just begging to put you in front of their camera.”
However, whilst the Hammer Films were undoubtedly what she was most well known for, she didn’t only appear in Hammer films. She starred in other horror films, too. For example, The House that Dripped Blood an Amicus Productions anthology of four short stories, in which Ingrid aptly played the starlet of, you guessed it… a vampire film! She claimed this was the most fun of her films to make, “because it was with Jon Pertwee.” As well as her movie stardom, Ingrid also wrote more than 10 books, about the horror industry, her life, and more.
Of course, Ingrid was most well known for her outstanding performance as Countess Dracula. The character was based on Countess Elizabeth Bathory, a 16th century Countess of Hungarian nobility who was accused of killing up to 650 young women, in the belief that bathing in the blood of young virgins would retain her youth. Ingrid later narrated a Cradle of Filth album as the Countess, never once breaking character.
Ingrid enjoyed what she did with a great amount of passion, and kept her career afloat single handed, up until the day she died. She was still making films in 2008, at the age of 71, as well as attending exhibitions and conventions, and constantly maintaining her own website, pittofhorror.com, which has been kept up and running as a memorial to Ingrid.
The website consists of passages from her books, a well kept blog, and plenty more, including a forum for her fans. She was known for throwing extravagant birthday parties every year, inviting friends, family, co-stars and even her fans, whom she loved deeply and never took for granted.
She considered that the introduction of CGI to horror is partly to blame for what, in her opinion, was a decline in quality of the genre. “The CGI is left to the technicians,” she explained. “The script says what is wanted, but it is given to the geeks. They turn out something brilliant but often at odds with the film. More than anything movie making is driven by the director. Once any part of it goes out of his hands it is difficult to integrate it into the rest of the film. Leave the ‘gore’ to the vampires. All they leave is two neat little holes.”
Her favourite film, Sixth Sense, illustrates her point further. “It’s brilliantly conceived and executed. And no claret. It shows there are writers, directors and actors out there that can tell a story. I didn’t believe the ending and went to see the film again to see if I could pick any holes in the story line. I couldn’t spot any.”
Ingrid went on to marry twice more, and had a daughter named Steffanie. Her husband, Tony Rudlin, affectionately nicknamed Tonio, was her rock for the last 37 years of her life. “He is my Idol. We’ve been together 35 years now, and it doesn’t seem a day too long.” She reflected in 2009.
After her death, thousands of Ingrid’s fans flocked to her still running website to share condolences with each other, and Ingrid’s family, as well as discussing memories of the astounding actress, who will forever be the image of the elegant Vampiress.