Gunnar Hansen

 ( 1947 Births ) 

Gunnar Milton Hansen (March 4, 1947 – November 7, 2015) was an Icelandic-born American actor and author. He played the mentally impaired cannibal Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).

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Early life Hansen was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, to Icelander Skúli Hansen, a dentist, and Norwegian Sigrid Hansen. He moved to the United States with his mother and brother when he was five years old. He lived in Maine until age eleven, when his family moved to Austin, Texas, where he attended Austin High School and the University of Texas at Austin. He majored in English and mathematics as an undergraduate and then went to graduate school in Scandinavian Studies and English.

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Career His first job out of high school was as a computer operator before he began theater work during college. He was also a football player during high school and for a while a bar bouncer. In 1973, just after finishing graduate school, Hansen heard that The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was being filmed in Austin and decided to audition. He got the part of Leatherface, the masked killer in the movie.

After writing (and occasionally editing) for magazines and writing books, Hansen returned to acting in 1988, appearing in the horror spoof Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers. He acted in 20 films thereafter, including Texas Chainsaw 3D as one of the Sawyers. He state that he considered his later acting as a side project and continued to write books. He also wrote film scripts and wrote and directed documentary films.

His final film project was a cameo in Death House, which he co-wrote with Harrison Smith.

Hansen was also an author; his nonfiction travel memoir, Islands at the Edge of Time; A Journey to America's Barrier Islands, was published in 1993. In 2013 he wrote the nonfiction book Chain Saw Confidential about the making of and reception for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

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Death Hansen died at his home in Northeast Harbor, Maine, of pancreatic cancer on November 7, 2015, at the age of 68.

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Filmography

+ Film and television
1974	The Texas Chain Saw Massacre	Leatherface
1977	The Demon Lover	Professor Peckinpah
1988	Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers	The Stranger
1991	Campfire Tales	Ralph
1995	Mosquito	Earl, The Bank Robber
	Freakshow	Freakmaster	Direct-to-video
	Exploding Angel	Walter
1996	Repligator	Dr. Kildare
1999	Hellblock 13	The Executioner	Direct-to-video
2002	Hatred of a Minute	Barry
	Witchunter	Michael Jones	Direct-to-video
	Rachel's Attic	Ronald
	Sinister	The Piper	Short film
2003	Next Victim	Dr. Howard	(segment "rehabilitation Center")
2004	The Business	Grandfather	Short film, direct-to-video
	Chainsaw Sally	Daddy
	Murder-Set-Pieces	The Nazi Mechanic
2005	Wolfsbayne	The Elder
	Apocalypse and the Beauty Queen	Reggie
2006	Swarm of the Snakehead	Gunner
	The Deepening	Dr. Chambers
2007		Krenshaw
	Shudder	Samson	Direct-to-video
	Gimme Skelter	Porter Sandford
2009	Won Ton Baby!	Dr. Kurt Severson
	It Came from Trafalgar	"Tex" Ghoul
	Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre	Captain Pétur
2013	Texas Chainsaw 3D	Boss Sawyer / Leatherface (archive footage)	Cameo, final role
2017	Death House	Albert Kenny	Cameo; Posthumous Release

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As self

• 1984 Terror in the Aisles archival footage
• 1988 Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait
• 2000 Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth
• 2001 Leatherface Speaks: An Informal Interview with Gunnar Hansen
• 2002 Behind the Attic Door: The Making of "Rachel's Attic"
• 2004 UnConventional
• 2006 Flesh Wounds: Seven Stories of the Saw

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See also

• The White Bird

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External links

• Gunnar Hansen official website

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