Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classic horror characters such as Baron Victor Frankenstein, Count Dracula, and the Mummy, which Hammer reintroduced to audiences by filming them in vivid colour for the first time. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies, as well as, in later years, television series.
The Mummy is a 1959 British horror film, directed by Terence Fisher and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. It was written by Jimmy Sangster and produced by Michael Carreras and Anthony Nelson Keys for Hammer Film Productions. The film was distributed in the U.S. in 1959 on a double bill with either the Vincent Price film The Bat or the Universal film Curse of the Undead.
Blood from the Mummy's Tomb is a 1971 British horror film starring Andrew Keir, Valerie Leon and James Villiers. It was director Seth Holt's final film, and was loosely adapted by Christopher Wicking from Bram Stoker's 1903 novel The Jewel of Seven Stars. The film was released as the support feature to Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde.
Dracula is a 1958 British gothic horror film directed by Terence Fisher and written by Jimmy Sangster based on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel of the same name. The first in the series of Hammer Horror films starring Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, the film also features Peter Cushing as Doctor Van Helsing, along with Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh, and John Van Eyssen. In the United States, the film was retitled Horror of Dracula to avoid confusion with the U.S. original by Universal Pictures, 1931's Dracula.
Andrew Keir was a Scottish actor who appeared in a number of films made by Hammer Film Productions in the 1960s. He played Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in the 1963 Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor vehicle Cleopatra. He was also active in television, and especially in the theatre, in a professional career that lasted from the 1940s to the 1990s.
Madeline Smith is an English actress. After working as a model in the late 1960s, she went on to appear in many television series and stage productions, plus comedy and horror films, in the 1970s and 1980s.
Suzanne Danielle, née Morris is an English former film and television actress.
Ingrid Pitt was a Polish-British actress and writer, best known for her work in British horror cinema of the 1970s.
Barbara Shelley was an English film and television actress. She appeared in more than a hundred films and television series. She was particularly known for her work in horror films, notably Village of the Damned; Dracula, Prince of Darkness; Rasputin, the Mad Monk and Quatermass and the Pit.
The Gorgon is a 1964 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Richard Pasco and Barbara Shelley. The screenplay was by John Gilling and Anthony Nelson Keys. It was produced by Keys for Hammer Films.
The Curse of the Werewolf is a 1961 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed and Yvonne Romain. It was based on the novel The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore. It was produced by Anthony Hinds for Hammer Film Productions.
Sarah Louise Clouston Geeson, known professionally as Sally Geeson, is an English actress with a career mostly on television in the 1970s. She is best known for playing Sid James's daughter, Sally, in Bless This House and for her roles in Carry On Abroad (1972) and Carry On Girls (1973). She also starred alongside Norman Wisdom in the film What's Good for the Goose (1969), and appeared with Vincent Price in two horror films, The Oblong Box (1969) and Cry of the Banshee (1970).
Yutte Stensgaard is a Danish actress born in Thisted, Jutland, Denmark, best known for her starring role in Hammer's Lust for a Vampire (1971).
Hai Karate was a budget aftershave and cologne for men that was sold in the United States and the United Kingdom from the 1960s to the 1980s. It was reintroduced in the U.K., under official licence, in late 2014 and was reintroduced again in 2021.
Michael Henry Carreras was a British film producer and director. He was known for his association with Hammer Films, being the son of founder James Carreras, and taking an executive role in the company during its most successful years.
Yvonne Adelaide "Evie" Romain is a British former film and television actress of the late 1950s and 1960s.
Sir James "Jimmy" Enrique Carreras was a British film producer and executive who, together with William Hinds, founded the British company Hammer Film Productions. His career spanned nearly 45 years, in multiple facets of the entertainment industry until retiring in 1972.
Marianne Stone was an English character actress. She performed in films from the early 1940s to the late 1980s, typically playing working class parts such as barmaids, secretaries and landladies. Stone appeared in nine of the Carry On films, and took part in an episode of the Carry On Laughing television series. She also had supporting roles with comedian Norman Wisdom.
Christopher Wicking, also known as Chris Wicking, was a British screenwriter, often in the horror and fantasy genres, notably for the British arm of American International Pictures and with Hammer Film Productions, for whom he was the last 'resident script editor'.
Mark Edwards is an Australian actor best known for his appearances in British horror films of the early 1970s.
