Donald Pleasence, OBE (October 5, 1919 – February 2, 1995) was an English stage and film actor.

Appearances
His acting career began in a 1939 production of Wuthering Heights, but was interrupted by World War II. He was at first a conscientious objector, but later joined the Royal Air Force and was shot down on a bombing raid, taken prisoner and tortured by his captors. He spent two years in a German prisoner-of-war camp, where he produced and acted in plays. He would later play Flight Lt. Colin Blythe in The Great Escape where much of the story takes place inside a POW camp.
He returned to acting after the war, and critics began to call him the "Man with the Hypnotic Eye". Perhaps because of this, and his bald head and quiet but intense voice, he specialised in insane and evil characters, including Prince John in the ITV series The Adventures of Robin Hood, Heinrich Himmler in The Eagle Has Landed and the Bond villain Blofeld in You Only Live Twice. In his later years, he became known to a younger generation as Dr. Loomis in Halloween. His trademark voice may be credited to elocution lessons he had as a child.
His acting hero was Sir Laurence Olivier whom he worked with many times, including the 1979 version of Dracula.

Personal life
Pleasence was nominated for the 1972 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for Wise Child and was awarded an OBE in 1994. On February 2, 1995 he died in St.-Paul-de-Vence, France from complications from heart valve replacement surgery at the age of 75.

Filmography

One of his earliest roles on television, as Syme in the BBC's highly-acclaimed 1954 adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, also starred Peter Cushing - another actor who would go on to find fame in many horror film roles.
He appeared twice with Patrick McGoohan in the British spy series, Danger Man, in episodes "Find and Return" and "Position of Trust."
He hosted the 1981 Halloween episode of Saturday Night Live with music guest Fear.
He starred as Rev. Septimus Harding in the BBC's 1982 production of The Barchester Chronicles
His first appearance in America was in an episode of The Twilight Zone. He played an aging (and suicidal) teacher at a boys' school in the 1962 episode "The Changing of the Guard."
He played the murderer in an episode of Columbo entitled "Any Old Port in a Storm" and also had the distinction of having been a culprit captured by Mrs. Columbo in "Murder is a Parlor Game."
He provided the voiceover for the British Public Information Film, Lonely Water. The film, intended to warn children of the dangers of playing near water, attained notoriety for allegedly giving children nightmares.