Slashers ruled the late 1970s and the ’80s, but while the likes of Michael Myers from theHalloweenmovies, Jason Voorhees fromFriday the 13thfranchise, and Leatherface fromThe Texas Chainsaw Massacreseries became iconic household names, most people don’t know who played them.Robert Englundbecame famous for playing Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, but that was because his face was seen, even behind the burn scar makeup, and we heard his voice. For the masked villains, we didn’t see their faces or hear them speak.It could have been any ol' stuntman behind the mask; and oftentimes, it was. Sometimes they made enough of a mark that a lot of horror fans now know them, likeGunnar Hansenwho is the original Leatherface,Nick Castlewho gave us the first Michael Myers, andKane Hodder, the most famous Jason Voorhees due to how many times he played him. While the people who portrayed those icons usually changed with each sequel, did you know that one guy namedTom Morgaactually played all three of the masked slasher legends on screen at some point in time?
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Tom Morga Is Jason Voorhees During ‘Friday the 13th: A New Beginning’s Dream Sequences
Tom Morga began his stunt double career in the 1970s. He appeared in small moviesbut also worked onJaws 2. In 1984, he actually got to beHarold Ramis’ stunt double forGhostbusters. In a 2018 interview withHalloween Daily News, Morga said:
“When I didGhostbusters, we had no idea that it was going to be a good movie at all, because they were using computer graphics for the first time. They tell you, ‘Just look at the wall. There’s going to be something there.’ And everybody says, ‘This is a joke. Just make sure you cash the checks.’ Then out comesGhostbusters. You never know.”
In the same yearGhostbusterswas released, we also gotFriday the 13th: The Final Chapter(spoiler: it wasn’t), where Jason Voorhees,played byTed Whitein a frightening performance, finally dies at the hands of young Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman). That might have briefly been the end of Jason, but with how profitable the Friday the 13th franchise was, Paramount couldn’t let it go. The very next year cameFriday the 13th: A New Beginning— but with a twist. Tommy, now played byJohn Shepherd, is a teenager living in a psychiatric hospital due to the trauma he went through.He is haunted by visions of Jason while a copycat killer begins murdering teenagers wearing the hockey mask.
A few different guys played Jason during the film, but Tom Morga was the main one. He does most of the masked stunts as copycat killer Roy Burns, which doesn’t make him Jason per se, buthe did technically play the Jason Tommy sees in his hallucinations. Morga put it bluntly with Halloween Daily News, saying, “I did all of the stuff in the mask.“Many fans hate this sequelfor not having Jason as the killer, but Morga plays the masked murderer as a sleek, nimble, and intelligent slasher, making him scary no matter who is supposed to be behind the mask.
Tom Morga Portrayed Leatherface During the Bridge Scene of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2’
One year after that, Tom Morga got to put on the mask of another slasher legend whenhe became Leatherface inThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. He wasn’t the cannibalistic killer in a dream or a hallucination but in the flesh. Original directorTobe Hooperreturned for the sequel, but Gunnar Hansen did not.Bill JohnsonandBob Elmoreshared duties as Leatherface, but the first time we meet him,during the horrifying bridge scene, it’s Tom Morga holding the saw. It’s Leatherface at his most shocking looking as well, ina moment where the family is in a pickup truck racing down two guys in a convertible across a bridge. Leatherface stands in the back of the truck, flailing about, but his face is old, rotting, and corpse-like, until he pushes it away, and we realize that he was holding an actual corpse in front of him. Now the familiar mask leans forward into the camera as the chainsaw comes down on the car.
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Tom Morga explainedduring the CT HorrorFest in 2017that he wasn’t hired to play Leatherface. Instead, he was brought in to be the stunt double for the radio station character of L.G. (Lou Perry) during his death scene. When he got to the set that day,Leatherface’s stunt double, Bob Elmore, had been shooting the truck scene for hours and his shoulder was hurting from holding the chainsawtake after take. Morga arrived to watch the scene play out, and he recalls Tobe Hooper asking him to jump in to replace Elmore for what ended up being just a second of footage in the final cut. “I wore Leatherface’s gear… so if you want to give me credit for it, okay, but it wasn’t much!”
Tom Morga Was Fired After Filming a Few Scenes as Michael Myers in ‘Halloween 4’
Two years later, in 1988, Tom Morga played a part in helping resurrect another silent slasher in a white mask. AlthoughFriday the 13th: A New Beginninghad Jason Voorhees still dead for the time being, after the flop that wasHalloween III: Season of the Witch, Michael Myers wasbrought back forHalloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. You know that explosion at the end ofHalloween IIwhen Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) blew both himself and The Shape to smithereens? It turns out Loomis just has a scarred face and Michael lives on, though he’s bandaged up and has been in a coma ever since. When Michael finds out he still has a living relative, a niece named Jamie (Danielle Harris), he awakens to continue his carnage.
InHalloween 4,George P. Wilburis credited as The Shape (he would also play him in 1995’sHalloween: The Curse of Michael Myers), but there were actually two boogeymen in the fourth film. Tom Morga explained what happened at the CT Horror Fest, saying, “I did the first half of the movie, and George P. Wilbur did the second half. And he got this name in the credits, which is fine.“Morga plays Michael during the early scenes where he is still bandaged up, but he was actually fired during filming for reasons that still baffle him. He told Halloween Daily News that the director and producer were unhappy with the director of photography, which led to changes. Morga added:
“For whatever reason, they decided to get a different person for Michael. I never was told [why]. I did half the movie, and then George came in. They said, ‘George is going to take over and do the rest of this.’ So I said, ‘Okay.’ At the time, I didn’t think it was that big of a thing. I didn’t do anything to get myself replaced, I thought. But for whatever reason, they were going to do it. So I had done about half the movie.”
No offense to the late George P. Wilbur, but Tom Morga is the better Michael Myers inHalloween 4.Wilbur was stuck with the hilarious-looking maskand the shoulder pads under his suit that made The Shape look like he was in a constant state of surprise.Morga’s Michael Myers didn’t have the mask or the shoulder padsto contend with, just a head completely wrapped in bandages. With his taller, more athletic build, his portrayal brought forth a Michael more imposing than silly. Morga’s career continued on after that impressive trifecta. He did more stunt work onThe Shawshank Redemption,Independence Day, andSpider-Man, but perhaps most interesting, he wasJeff Goldblum’s stunt double inThe Lost World: Jurassic Park. Still, as cool as working with Goldblum had to have been, it can’t compare to being the only man to ever play three of horror’s most infamous foes.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myersis available to watch on Shudder in the U.S.
