Sadly we have to report the death from cancer of horror actor Paul Naschy (real name Jacinto Molina) at the age of 75.

As well as an actor, Paul was also a writer, director and producer of numerous horror films, but it was his twelve outings as Count Waldemar Danisky, the Wolfman, that earned him the title of the Spanish Lon Chaney.

Paul Naschy has a very special connection to Estepona being one of the driving forces behind Estepona's annual International Horror and Fantasy Film Festival of which he was the General Coordinator, and which celebrated its tenth edition earlier this year.

As a tribute to his work with the Festival, the town of Estepona honoured Paul Naschy this year by naming a street after him.

Paul Naschy will be remembered fondly by all those that worked with him or met him.

Biography

Paul Naschy (born Jacinto Molina, September 6, 1934, Madrid - December 1, 2009, Madrid) was a Spanish movie actor, screenwriter, and director working primarily in horror films. His portrayal of numerous classic horror figures such as the wolfman, a hunchback, Count Dracula, a mummy, etc., have earned him recognition as a Spanish Lon Chaney. King Juan Carlos I presented Naschy with Spain's Gold Medal Award for Fine Arts in 2001 in honour of his work.

The werewolf Waldemar Daninsky is without a doubt Paul Naschy's most famous horror character, since he played him in 12 different films since his first out in the 1968 classic "La Marca del Hombre Lobo" (The Mark of the Wolf Man) which gave birt to the boom in the Spanish Horror Film industry. In fact, Naschy holds the record for playing a Wolf Man the most number of times, easily beating out even the great Lon Chaney Jr. (who played a Wolf Man only seven times during his career).

His only other recurring character was the villainous medieval warlock Alaric de Marnac (who appears in Naschy's Horror Rises From the Tomb (1972) and returns again in Panic Beats (1982). Naschy claims he based this character on a real-life medieval nobleman named Gilles de Rais, a bizarre serial killer on whose life story Naschy also based the lead character in his film The Marshall From Hell (1974).)

After a period making documentaries in Japan, Naschy returned to Spain where interest in his work has recently enjoyed a renaissance.

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