While George Romero and Danny Trejo were “Rock & Shock’s” top draw, the two guests I most wanted to meet were Dee Wallace and Adrienne Barbeau. Both of these women have substantive careers as actresses that span over 30 years with no sign of letting up.

 While standing in line to get pictures of David with HALLOWEEN actress, Scout Taylor-Compton, I watched Dee Wallace interact with guests. I was struck by two things; 1) she is much earthier than I thought/heard she would be and 2) the 61 year old actress is aging quite nicely. The guest that had enthralled Taylor-Compton with his boa constrictor also garnered the attention of Doug Bradley, a.k.a. “Pinhead” from the HELLRAISER films. Wallace couldn’t help but notice and left her table to check it out.  Both David and I had heard stories that she had a tendency to be distant with her fans as any actress with her impressive resume’ could afford to be. I am happy to say that nothing could be further from the truth.

Doug Bradley, Dee Wallace, & a snake that somehow keeps making it onto this site!

 Whenever I think of Wallace I think of her as either the mom from E.T. or “Karen White” from one of my all time favorite werewolf movies, THE HOWLING.  In these, and many of her other roles, she seems to have a fragile quality that makes you easily see why  her character blocked out the werewolf transformation witnessed at the beginning of THE HOWLING. I was, therefore, a bit shocked listening to her drop a few “F-Bombs” while interacting with guests. Then again, this was “Rock & Shock,” not “Disney on Ice,” so my notion of what Dee Wallace must be like off screen is probably testament to her abilities while on.

When it was finally our turn to meet Wallace, she was very gracious and enjoyed talking about her films. I told her that it was amazing to me how AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and THE HOWLING both came out the same year (1981) and neither has been matched in regards to showing a full werewolf metamorphosis, even in today’s CGI world. She completely agreed and showed a genuine pride for the iconic film she was a part of – something that makes genre fans like me very happy. This is one area where the Daves are in complete agreement; We’re fans of both werewolf movies but prefer THE HOWLING – mostly because we believe that werewolves should stand vertically!

I told her that the werewolf she turned into at the end was so cute I wanted to put a leash on her and take her home. “Well, you’d have taken home a robot since that werewolf was animatronic,” she quipped. We laughed and then she went on to say, “At the time I took myself a little too seriously as an actress and wouldn’t allow them to do make-up effects like that on me.”

I asked if her if it was that same pride in her craft that caused her to decline a role in THE HOWLING II. She shook her head disgusted and said, “I told them up front, look I don’t do porn!” We had another good laugh and she happily signed our autographs and took photos.

 Dee Wallace gets a 10 on the celebrity meeting scale. She’s fun, enjoys interacting with her fans, and has a great sense of humor!

Next Post: Adrienne Barbeau!

Dave Fuentes~