Indie filmmaker and CHAINSAW SALLY director Jimmyo Burril says farewell to Gunnar Hansen.
Gunnar popped into my life in 1979 when I snuck into see THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE at a midnight movie. The film changed my life, in the way I saw entertainment. Later as video made it easy to own your own copy of movies, TCM was my very first purchase. I didn’t know at that time that I would become friends with the guy on the cover. When we met, I was a fan boy. I asked the same questions everyone else did. Made the same comments about the film. Soon, we were making CHAINSAW SALLY, and he really seemed to love the character and the movie.
Our friendship grew, over the years since 2003 and it wasn’t too long that the idea of Leatherface had slipped away, and it was Gunnar who was my friend, not some college student who had chased Marilyn Burns around in the woods for a few weeks years ago. My friend was very smart, very funny, very sweet, especially to my kids, whom now call him Uncle Gunnar. He was not Leatherface. He was just Gunn. However, we often, in picking mode, which there was a lot of, called each other Mr. Face, and Mr. Sally.
We would, talk regularly, usually about nothing important. Sometimes it might have just be about what we were having for supper. We did have one tradition that I will share. When we went out, we usually got coffee, and nachos (The nachos were rarely to Mr. Face’s standards) which made the evening more fun as we had a common enemy… the cook. As we would part, in person or on the phone, one of us always added, “Don’t forget, you still owe me nachos.” I think it was our way of saying “I love you, and can’t wait to see you again soon.” So to my gentle friend… Mr. Face… You still owe me nachos dammit.
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