Andrew Prine

A Face Forged in the Desert

Some actors belong to a specific era, but Andrew Prine seemed to come from an earlier time. His sharp jaw and a gaze that was both cynical and weary quickly put him on the map of 1960s Hollywood. He was not the traditional square-jawed leading man.

He had something unsettling about him.

Prine was born in Jennings in 1936 and soon realized his place was far from the humid heat of South Florida. He made his Broadway debut in Look Homeward, Angel, which opened the doors of television to him wide. But the movies were calling him loudly.

In 1962, he took part in The Miracle Worker under the direction of Arthur Penn. Working alongside Anne Bancroft shaped his approach to acting, built on absolute restraint and an enviable economy of gestures.

John Wayne's Favorite Ally

The 1970s were his golden decade in the desert. He shot Chisum in 1970 and reunited with John Wayne for The Train Robbers three years later. Wayne appreciated his ability to ride horses without complaint and his punctuality on the Durango sets.

These were tough productions where dust got into your lungs and contracts were sealed with a handshake.

And Prine never missed a shot.

His move into horror was almost accidental but extremely profitable. In 1971, he starred in Simon, King of the Witches, playing a sorcerer who lived in a sewer. It was a leap of faith that many of his contemporaries were too afraid to take for fear of being typecast in low-budget films.

Surviving the B-Movie World

B-movies gave him a freedom that the major studios denied him. He appeared in The Town That Dreaded Sundown in 1976 and established himself as an essential face of the rawest genre films. In the 1980s, television became his main refuge again, with appearances in V and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

He never stopped working.

In 2005, Rob Zombie brought him back for The Devil's Rejects and gave him a role reminiscent of his best years playing ambiguous villains. His last film appearance was in 2015 in Beyond the Farthest Star.

Andrew Prine died in October 2022 in Puerto Vallarta at the age of 86 from heart failure. He left behind more than 180 credits in an industry that no longer produces actors with that kind of weathered toughness.