Texas Chainsaw actor reveals shocking behind-the-scenes stories

Allen Danziger today. Photo ©Mark Cerulli

"I love it here," Allen Danziger enthuses on the phone from Tokyo where he was a special guest at the city's first-ever celebratory screening of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (TCM) a 1974 film that completely changed his life. Fifty years on, the entrepreneur is still amazed by the movie's reception: "It's a new adventure every day! Everywhere we went we got standing ovations. People said it changed their lives."

Although Danziger, a robust 82, didn't try Tokyo's most potentially lethal dish, fugu (sliced blowfish which can be deadly if the poison sacs aren't carefully removed) he tried about everything else in the bustling capital. "I love the sights, the sounds, the smells, every day was a different adventure."

Every life is a journey, but Danziger's seems more radical than most. Born in the Bronx in 1942, he attended the prestigious Bronx High School for Science and City College. "My mother was very domineering, so I knew I had to get away." After hearing that the University of Texas was accepting applications for their psychology program, Allen applied and got in. Suddenly it was goodbye Empire State, hello Lone Star State. "I always wanted to see a foreign country," he quips.

As he worked on his master's in social psychology (and later another in social work) he got to know his downstairs neighbor, film editor Sallye Richardson (who would edit TCM). She introduced him to Tobe Hooper, who was prepping his feature directorial debut, Eggshells. "It was a hippie dippy psychedelic film," Allen recalled. On set, his quick East Coast wit came in handy as he ad-libbed most of his lines and the filmmaker kept putting him in more scenes. One of his off-script lines was "Are you talking to me?" which Allen swears made its way into the iconic De Niro movie, Taxi Driver a few years later. Eggshells wasn't a hit, but Hooper's next project would be…

"They sent me a script (written by Hooper and actor/writer Kim Henkel), "Allen remembers, "I didn't even have to audition." That script was called Headcheese, then Leatherface… and finally The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Allen read it and said, "I gotta do this." Since he was a working social worker, a profession everyone admired, the filmmakers shot around HIS schedule. Most of his scenes took place in the van his character "Jerry" drove through a remote stretch of Texas. "It was Africa hot," Allen remembers – the windows were up, no air conditioning with actors and the film crew jammed together, the director puffing on a cigar. "I loved every minute of it."

Although not an actor, Allen took the process seriously enough to ask to be blindfolded so he wouldn't see Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) until his death scene was shot. He got his wish and when he first laid eyes on the 6'4" Hansen in full makeup, he panicked! "In fact, when he comes into the scene, I let out an all-time scream and tore out of there… Tobe yelled 'Cut', came over, put his arm around me and said, 'Allen, that's a great scream, but you have to wait for him to come into frame.'"

After several takes, the brutal sequence of Jerry getting a hammer to the head was in the can. "After the movie, Gunnar and I became lifelong friends… he was so bright, so funny and smart." When Gunnar was writing his memoirs, Chain Saw Confidential, he asked Allen about his character. "And I said, Gunnar, we were fodder – we were just there to be killed."

Fortunately for Allen, he spent only a few hours in the farmhouse, which was dressed with real animal bones and carcasses – which began to stink after days in the sweltering Texas heat. "For the dinner scene, people say it took from 22 to 36 hours to shoot." (On this Japan trip, Allen's wingman was none other than "Grandpa" — actor John Dugan who was 20 years old during production and DID have to spend days in that very pungent house.) "The makeup just about killed him," Allen recalled with a chuckle. "On the last night of shooting he said, 'we have to get this done tonight cause I'm not coming back.'"

As for Ed Neal "He's off the page, we became great friends. When we go to these conventions, they line up for Ed and for John … everybody wants anybody connected to that movie."

Allen let his humor get the better of him when Tobe Hooper invited him to see some TCM dailies fresh from the lab and asked what he could do to improve the scenes. "Have the seats facing away from the screen," Allen quipped. The director was NOT amused. "The film really came together in the editing room," Allen allows. Today the film is deemed significant enough to be included in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre caused a huge stir when it was released in 1974 due to its raw and realistic violence. It was banned in countries like Finland, France and Brazil, yet racked up a box office take of over $30 million. (Profit sharing and accounting are, of course, another story!) Some critics were repulsed by its extreme gore while others fell under the filmmakers' sway. Noted critic Rex Reed called it "The most terrifying film I've ever seen." Celebrated filmmaker Quentin Tarantino called TCM "perfect." So, what was Allen's reaction to the finished product? "I went to what is now The Alamo Drafthouse (in Austin) to see the coming attractions to see if I was really in the movie and the moment I came on screen I ran out of the theater, I was so freaked out!"

After his flirtation with acting, Allen went back to social work for a decade, then opened a business called Three Ring Service which produced local events including one that his co-star Ed Neal sang at. But TCM wasn't done with him yet… In 2004 he went to his first horror convention and was blown away by the reception he got from the fans. "They were the nicest people…" The Chainsaw love has never stopped. "Just the other day a young girl came up to our table and started shaking and crying saying 'I can't believe I'm meeting my heroes.' You can't make this up."

He started off with one B&W photo at his first convention table. "I saw all the stuff Gunnar and Ed had and said 'I'm dead in the water.'" Now Allen comes armed with numerous color stills of himself in the film, plus all kinds of unique collectibles. His website, chainsawjerry.com, offers t-shirts, a talking Bobblehead doll ("It's in the Bobblehead Hall of Fame"), hoodies, pins and "Killer" beef jerky. (Full disclosure: this writer sampled some and it's delicious!) There is also a collection of props for sale from his upcoming self-produced movie, The Weedhacker Massacre which was shot on location in Texas. Allen also provided the opening narration for Sean Haitz's horror comedy Cannibal Comedian coming in 2025 on Blu-Ray and digital.

The feisty Bronx native is living proof that opportunity lurks everywhere – a chance connection led to his being cast in one of the most iconic films in modern cinema, creating a retail niche which he is happily filling! However, conventions and bobbleheads aside, it all started with Tobe Hooper's and Kim Henkel's vision: 84 minutes of pulse-pounding terror that packed theaters and enraged censors. Why is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre so popular five decades later? "It was so visceral," Allen offers, "nobody knew any of the actors, so it was real, like a documentary… and it's Texas. You believe it could happen in Texas!"