‘Re-Animator’s’ Jeffrey Combs’ not-so-gory past
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Given that Jeffrey Combs seems to have spent much of his film and television career fending off zombies or zooming through space, you might think he grew up reading gory comics and building toy rockets.
Wrong. ‘This all found me -- I didn’t find it,’ says Combs, who has appeared in more than 40 horror movies, including the 1985 splatter classic ‘Re-Animator’ and played a variety of notorious aliens on ‘Star Trek’ TV spinoffs. ‘Fans think you must do this because you’re crazy about it. What happened to be on is what I’d watch as a kid.’
One exception: ‘I did relish the original ‘Star Trek’ show.’
Combs, 54, started out on the stage -- he did Shakespeare at the Old Globe in San Diego -- but ended up a horror hero after he starred in Re-Animator’ as a medical student who brings the dead to life with decidedly mixed results.
These days, Combs is combining his love of theater and his penchant for playing characters from the dark side in the one-man show ‘Nevermore...An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe,’ which runs at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood through Sept. 26.
The production -- which has received rave reviews -- grew out of Combs’ portrayal of Poe in a 2007
Showtime ‘Masters of Horror’ episode created by ‘Re-Animator’ director Stuart Gordon and co-writer Dennis Paoli. Combs’ performance prompted Gordon to suggest he try a one-man show.
At first, Combs said no. But, just in case, he called Showtime to see if his costumes were available. You’re lucky, he was told. The wardrobe had just been sold. A week later and it would have been gone. ‘I took that as a sign,’ says Combs, ‘one of many things that fell into place.’
Gordon and Paoli are collaborating on ‘Nevermore’ with Combs, who says his past lives have provided many kinds of practical support. ‘My stage training has helped me know how to personify the period and convey the physicality and verbiage and I’m accustomed to the tone of the creepy stories and gothic, melodramatic aspects of Poe because of doing horror movies.’
‘The gentleman who created my wig is someone I knew from my ‘Star Trek’ days, and for the nose I went to some of the people I knew from my horror projects,’ he adds. ‘Without having done all this stuff I wouldn’t have been able to cull everything together.’
Read more about Combs in my story in today’s Calendar or click here.
-- Karen Wada
Top photo: Jeffrey Combs. Credit: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times. Bottom photo: Combs as Weyoun, a Vorta, in the television series ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.’ Credit: Paramount Pictures