MOVIE NEWS – Candyman star pays tribute to late Tony Todd on what would have been his 70th birthday.

The world of cinema suffered a great loss on November 4th when Tony Todd passed away. Although he was primarily known for his roles in the horror genre, Todd’s career spanned the theatre and even the world of video games. All the while, he was known to his peers as one of the nicest people you could ever meet, as Candyman star Virginia Madsen confirmed in a touching tribute to her late friend on what would have been her 70th birthday.

Madsen shared what Todd meant to her on Variety’s website on December 4th, recalling how she first met the actor before cameras started rolling on their 1992 horror classic, based on the Clive Barker story. “I first met Tony at a lunch,” she recalled, then noted that she only got the role opposite Todd after the director’s wife dropped out.

“I was originally going to play Helen’s best friend, Bernadette. Bernard’s wife at the time, Alexandra Pigg, was going to play Helen. But she got pregnant and they felt it was too grueling for her, so I stepped in as Helen. I think this lunch was a kind of chemistry read, or maybe we were just meeting because we were going to go through a lot together. He walked in and he was so tall and handsome and he had that wonderful smile […] And he was so kind. He could have dismissed me as some little starlet, but he treated me like an equal from the start.”

She went on to share an anecdote that highlighted Todd’s sense of humor before she returned to Candyman, and likened the tragic love story in the film to his friendship with Todd, which lasted well after the film was released. It’s something that Madsen says doesn’t happen very often in Hollywood.

“One of the reasons Candyman is so powerful is that people loved and cared about the characters.”

“They were invested in this story. In a way, our friendship was a love story of its own. To get to start out with someone you respect and appreciate so much and remain in touch with years later — it’s a rare thing in this business.”

Virginia Madsen says Tony Todd was a “beautiful human being”

If you followed Todd on social media, one of the first things you noticed about the actor was that he was the furthest thing from the ominous characters he played in the movies. It’s a feeling he left behind for many of his fans, as Madsen pointed out in her eulogy.

“I remember we’d be at a convention and people would see him and scream and run away. But he always got a kick out of it. He appreciated those fans in a way some people don’t and he was always up for posing for photos with the hook. People speak to him and they’ll all walk away saying, ‘What a great guy.'”

Source: Variety