Clu Gulager an absolute legend in his time began his career in classic westerns like The Virginian. He leaves behind a massive body of work that dipped itself steeply into horror as well as westerns. His role in Return of the Living Dead is an absolutely iconic role that entirely understood both sides of both horror and comedy.
Gulager spent a lot of time within the horror genre including the Feast trilogy, A Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy’s Revenge, Puppet Master 5, Uninvited, and more.
“Clu was as caring as he was loyal and devoted to his craft, a proud member of the Cherokee nation, a rule-breaker, sharp and astute and on the side — always — of the oppressed. He was good-humored, an avid reader, tender and kind. Loud and dangerous,” Diane Goldner, Gulager’s daughter-in-law said in a statement. “He was shocked that he lived, for even a day after Miriam Byrd-Nethery, the love of his life, died 18 years ago.”
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The synopsis for Return of the Living Dead went like this:
When foreman Frank (James Karen) shows new employee Freddy (Thom Mathews) a secret military experiment in a supply warehouse, the two klutzes accidentally release a gas that reanimates corpses into flesh-eating zombies. As the epidemic spreads throughout Louisville, Ky., and the creatures satisfy their hunger in gory and outlandish ways, Frank and Freddy fight to survive with the help of their boss (Clu Gulager) and a mysterious mortician (Don Calfa).
Clu leaves behind an enormous body of work for us to return to and revisit. Most recently, Quentin Tarantino placed Gulager in his film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood due to the director’s deep reverence for the actor’s works. Rest in peace Clu.
