Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.05.2008, Side 20

20 | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 05 2008 | Article
Peter Ronson
One Hollywood box-office smash and then retirement, Pe-
ter Ronson aka Pétur Rögnvaldsson was the ultimate one
hit wonder. He landed a role in the big budget Journey to
the Centre of the Earth in 1959, opposite such star names as
James Mason, Pat Boone and Arlene Dahl, but then turned
down all subsequent movie offers.
Ronson played Hans, the dependable, Icelandic guide.
Hans was tall, strong and laconic and weirdly attached to
Gertrude the duck, and every watching ten year old idolised
him. Squeaky clean teen-idol Boone couldn’t compete. Ron-
son even got to deliver his dialogue in Icelandic.
As Hans, Ronson had the opportunity to show his prow-
ess against prehistoric monsters or rather back projected liz-
ards with rubber crests and frills glued on. After the movie
he faced another physical challenge – competing for Iceland
in the 110m hurdles in the Rome Olympics in 1960. For the
record, he clocked in at 15.2 seconds and came sixth in his
heat. Plenty of sportsmen try to break into movies (OJ Simp-
son, Vinnie Jones, Eric Cantona) but there aren’t many who
take the opposite route.
Gunnar Hansen
Since Boris Karloff back in the 1930s, the man behind the
monster has often proved the opposite of his cinematic face.
So it is with Gunnar Hansen, the iconic Leatherface in Tobe
Hooper’s groundbreaking horror movie, The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre. Leatherface is a brutish, inbred, Texan cannibal.
Hansen is a mild mannered journalist, poet and historian
born in Reykjavik.
Hansen is undeniably effective as the chainsaw-wield-
ing killer. His workman-like despatch of one victim with a
lump hammer is particularly chilling, even if the final scenes,
in which Leatherface chases the heroine and a very fat pass-
ing trucker in and out of the lorry and down the highway, do
conjure up the Benny Hill theme tune.

He turned down a part in West Craven’s The Hills Have
Eyes to concentrate on his writing. He published a well re
ceived book about America’s barrier islands, their ecology
and inhabitants, but the lure of schlock was strong. Since
the late eighties, Hansen has built himself a career in mostly
straight-to-video horrors like Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers,
Hellblock 13 and Witchunter. Next up? Hansen goes back to
his roots with The Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre, cur-
rently in pre-production.
Jóhann Pétursson
Jóhann Pétursson is more obscure than the other actors
in this series but nevertheless had a long acting career. It
spanned nearly forty years, from 1943 to 1980, but he made
just three films in that time. Not surprisingly, his 2.34 metre
(7’8’’) stature had him typecast as a giant.
The first film was a Danish art house movie called
Hjertetyven. Then in 1950 he appeared in the kitsch fantasy,
Prehistoric Women, a mix of sling-shot-wielding amazons,
a pterodactyl that looks like a duck and the discovery of
fire. Jóhann is Guaddi: “savage, merciless and possessed of
Herculean strength...the most feared thing in the prehistoric
world”, as the ever-present narrator tells us. He makes bone-
crunchingly short work of a tiger but can’t cope with tribes-
men with flaming torches. The whole thing is nonsense of
course but kind of fun with a couple of beers.
Thirty years later he showed up in Carny, alongside
such star names as Jodie Foster, Gary Busey and the old film
noir fall guy, Elisha Cook Jr. Carny would have been familiar
territory for Jóhann, as he spent many years in carnivals in
several countries, often billed as The Viking Giant.
In trying to find out a little more about him, I asked
a friend who was related to an exceedingly tall man if this
were him. No, came the reply, but he rented a room from my
great grand parents in Dalvik. Only in Iceland.....
By Andrew Clark
Icelandic Heroes of
the Silver Screen
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