Actors - Hy Pyke

	Actors - Hy Pyke

Hy Pyke is an United States character actor born in Los Angeles, California on the 2 December, 1935, the son of vaudevillian David Pyke and his wife Pauline. Pyke majored in theatre at the UCLA in the 60's, appearing in numerous student films, including one for Ray Manzarek, keyboard player of The Doors, called Induction (1965), which also featured The Doors vocalist Jim Morrison in a brief role. During that time period, Pyke was also associated with Del Close.

From the UCLA, Pyke went on to have a longish career playing strange, often comic characters in usually out-of-the-ordinary, low-budget, independent features, with some brief appearances in mainstream films. Some of his mainstream appearances, like a small part in the John Milius film Dillinger (1973), ended up cut out of the final film. Although many of his better known films are in the horror genre, Pyke acted in everything from blaxploitation to musical comedies. He had a unique acting style best described as "manic", which some might call overacting, with a penchant for physical, exaggerated comedy. He also had an extremely distinctive, raspy voice, which could be called a crossing of Aldo Ray with Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons.

In the 70's, Pyke's physical appearance was equally distinctive. Very short, slightly overweight, with a moustache and heavily balding head of wild black hair, he looked like the archetypal Mexican bandit of B-westerns or Sancho Panza (a role he was practically born to play and did, in The Erotic Adventures Of Don Quixote, 1976) come to life. No matter how brief his appearances were, he always, for better or worse, stole the scene he was in. Besides his film work, Pyke acted in theatre, musical revues, etc. He also wrote poetry (whether or not any was ever published in print is unknown) and plays. He was sometimes credited as Monty Pike, Hy Camp and Hy Pike. For additional trivia, Pyke was also romantically attached to the daughter of Ethel Merman, the late Ethel Jr., for several years.

During the 70's, Pyke delivered a number of bizarre performances in equally extraordinary films. His most memorable role was as a creepy bus driver in the 1975 horror film Lemora: A Child's Tale Of The Supernatural. Other notable 70's Pyke appearances were in Dolemite
, (1975), The First Nudie Musical, (1976), and in Spawn Of The Slithis, (1978). Pyke also played the part of Bebe Rebozo in a unreleased Richard Nixon satire called The Way He Was. Pyke, a political activist with his roots in the beatnik era, had little sympathy for Nixon. In general, Pyke's background in the counterculture movement of the 60's comes strongly through in his 70's performances.

Pyke's most well known role was the bar owner Taffey Lewis in the science fiction movie Blade Runner
, (1982), directed by Ridley Scott. Another noteworthy 80's appearance was in the horror comedy Vamp (1986), starring Grace Jones. As the 80's progressed, Pyke's acting career slowed down and he moved over to TV commercials. His last larger movie role to date was in the low-budget, very minor 1990 horror film Hack-O-Lantern.

Pyke now lives in Los Angeles and is still performing as a nightclub comedian, having survived quadruple by-pass surgery. In 2004, he contributed to a book about obscure 70's genre films, Gods in Polyester, reminiscing on Lemora, Dolemite and others, in a style very much in tune with his persona on the big screen. Pyke has been namechecked twice in reviews of the book, in passing on the website of the British Headpress publishing house, and in detail in the Dutch horror magazine Schokkend Nieuws, where his stories were referred to as "insane adventures". He was also interviewed for a E! True Hollywood Story episode on David Carradine in 2000. Pyke has recently been working on a new film for the first time in years, The Secret Pursuit of Happiness, which is now in post-production and set for a 2006 release.

Although many of Pyke's films have gone on to become cult movies, he has remained relatively unknown as an actor. Outside of the midnight movie crowd, Pyke is remembered mostly for Blade Runner.

A Partial Filmography

Lemora
: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural AKA Legendary Curse of Lemora (1975)

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