He has the unique horror distinction of being the only man to play Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, Victor Crowley and Freddy Kruger! Bow before the horror royalty that is Kane Hodder!
Hodder was born on April 8, 1955 in Auburn, California. He was the first actor to portray Jason Voorhees more than once, in a total of four movies. He portrayed horror icon Leatherface through the stunt work of the 1990 film Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. He also appeared in an episode of The Arsenio Hall Show to promote Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, in costume as Jason. When he reprised that role again in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, he also appeared as Freddy Krueger’s gloved hand at the close of that film in anticipation for Freddy vs. Jason.
One funny story that he likes to tell is that during the filming of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988), his dressing room was a quarter of a mile down this dirt road. One night filming ended at at 2 a.m. and he was still in the Jason costume, and he decided to walk through the woods on a path to his dressing room. As he was walking someone approached him and asked if he was with the movie. He didn’t reply, because he thought it was a pretty stupid question to ask, as he was standing there in full Jason costume. The man asked again, Kane took a little lunge for the guy and grunted. The guy took off, tripping and running. The next day director John Carl Buechler told Kane that the local sheriff was supposed to stop by, but he never showed.
Among his contributions to the Jason Voorhees character, Kane said that Jason should never have to run after his victims, nor would he hurt children and animals. During his recurring roles as Jason Voorhees, he has often disagreed with directors over things the script originally called for him to do. He’s been known to look at the director and say, from behind the mask, “Jason wouldn’t do that.” This was seen when Jason was supposed to kick the main character’s dog near the climax of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989). Kane refused, saying Jason may kill people but he’s not bad enough to kick a dog.
One of his favorite death scenes from his tenure as Jason Voorhees was the scene in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) where he picks up the girl in the sleeping bag and bashes her into the tree, a scene he recreated in Jason X (2001). Ironically, Kane said that he actually had difficulty pulling the original stunt off because the dummy that was in the bag was heavier than he thought it would be, so he had to re-shoot the scene over and over again because no matter how hard he swung the bag the director kept telling him it didn’t look right. On the final take, Kane was so fed up with the situation that he threw bag on the ground and kicked in frustration. That was the shot that ended up in the film.
As well as his horror and his stunt work, Hodder has also appeared in Streets of Hollywood, The Renegades, Avenging Force, Lone Wolf McQuade, House II: The Second Story, Hill Street Blues, Best of the Best, Alligator II: The Mutation, Out For Justice, 9 1/2 Ninjas, Ghoulies Go To College, House IV, Best of the Best II, Scannercop II, Wishmaster, T.N.T., Martial Law, V.I.P., Star Trek:DS9, Daredevil, Alias, The Devil’s Rejects, and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.
Although he offered to reprise his role as Jason Voorhees in the 2003 film Freddy vs. Jason, director Ronny Yu replaced Hodder with 6’5″ Canadian stuntman Ken Kirzinger. The switch created controversy among fans of the series and has been credited to several rumors, including Kirzinger’s location in Canada and his height compared to Robert Englund, the actor who portrayed Freddy Krueger, while Yu himself stated that it was New Line Cinema’s idea to do so.Though Hodder still expresses resentment over not being chosen, he is still good friends with Kirzinger and Englund.
In 2011 Hodder wrote, along with author Michael Aloisi, his autobiography Unmasked: The True Story of the World’s Most Prolific Cinematic Killer. This was in 2014 turned into a Webseries, which was released as The Killer & I.
Hodder starred in the slasher film Hatchet as main character Victor Crowley, a physically deformed young boy who comes back from the dead to kill the people who invade the swamp he lives in, a similar story in scope to that of Jason Voorhees. He reprised this role in Hatchet II and Hatchet III. He has expressed interest in portraying Michael Myers.
Hodder portrayed Grawesome Crutal in the old-school slasher film, Muck and its sequel Muck: Feast of Saint Patrick. He co-starred with Doug Jones and Michael McShane in the horror comedy film Love in the Time of Monsters. In March 2015, he was part of Adam Green’s ArieScope webseries Adam Green’s Scary Sleepover.
Hodder is a noted Juggalo, a fan of the group Insane Clown Posse. To reflect this, he has a custom charm of the group’s “hatchetman” logo holding a machete instead of a hatchet, a reference to his role as Jason.
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