Classic Hammer Horror writer Jimmy Stangster has died

Horror writer Jimmy Stangster has passed away.

http://trailersfromhell.com/blog/2011/08/19/rip-jimmy-sangster/?utm_so urce=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rip-jimmy-sangster

Now you might not recognize the name but Jimmy Stangster is a legend in the horror genre.

He was the writer for the 1959 The Mummy starring Christopher Lee as well as other Hammer Horror classics.

He wrote Horror of Dracula, Brides of Dracula and Dracula: Prince of Darkness. These are all Hammer Horror movies which starred Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing (basis for the original Fright Night Peter Vincent) as Professor Van Helsing.

Jimmy Stangster also wrote along side Richard Matheson (writer of I am Legend) on several episodes of Kolchak the Night Stalker (soon to be re-adapted by Johnny Depp), and Wonder Woman.

A funny story about Jimmy Stangster is his falling out with Christopher Lee. According to Hollywood legend (and Christopher Lee himself) Christopher Lee played Dracula as mute in Dracula: Prince of Darkness because he hated the dialogue of the script (in every other Hammer Horror Dracula movie he spoke). But according to Jimmy Stangster he deliberately wrote that movie without any lines for Dracula because he saw Dracula as a predator who didn't need words. Yet every scene with him feels strange and awkward with Dracula pointing and grunting where dialogue feels like it belongs. Whose version of the story do you believe?