RIP Conrad Brooks (Patreon)

I have a theory that cult film fans are more loyal than others. I back it up by the number of cult actors who continued to find genre work as they grew older, being directed by those who had enjoyed their earlier films. That doesn't really happen in mainstream cinema, or at least not in the same way.

Conrad Brooks began working with Ed Wood in 1953 playing 3 roles in Glen or Glenda (credited as Connie Brooks). He went on to work with Wood again in, among others, Jail Bait, The Sinister Urge, Bride of the Monster, Night of the Ghouls and, of course, Plan 9 From Outer Space. He retired from acting after 1961's Beast of the Yucca Flats (a film that's enough to make anyone retire), but returned in 1983's The Polish Vampire in Burbank. 

It was in the early 80s that Plan 9, which no one had thought about since its release, was reinvented as 'the worst movie ever made' - a title it didn't deserve but one which gave it new life and unexpected celebrity to those of its stars still around. Brooks' turn as the policeman in Plan 9 made him a favourite of cult movie fans, and when those fans started making their own cult movies, they were keen to cast the actor. This career resurgence also allowed Brooks to direct and produce. The titles Brooks appeared in sound like a waiting list for Dark Corners, from Blood Slaves of the Vampire Wolf (which he also directed) to this year's Toilet Gator, and IMDB lists four films still to be released which will feature the actor's final performances. He even appeared in a short entitled Conrad Brooks Vs The Werewolf, and of course got the call from Tim Burton (the king of fan-boy filmmakers) for a cameo role in biopic Ed Wood.

I doubt when he played Patrolman Jamie, Brooks could have had any idea where that role might lead; to a career that was never going to win him any Oscars, but one which kept him in work, which made him a much loved face on the convention circuit, and which was, above all, fun. He died yesterday (6th December) at the age of 86, the last of Ed Wood's stock company, perhaps we'll review one of his films sometime as a little tribute. He himself is an example of what an actor can do if they just want to work, but his life and career also serve as a tribute to the loyalty of cult film fans. Whether it's the big stars like Christopher Lee or the bit players like Brooks, we remember our own.