Go to Biography
Go to Filmography
   Photo Pages Designed by |
Ingrid Pitt #1
Ingrid Pitt #4 |
Ingrid Pitt #2
Ingrid Pitt #5 |
Ingrid Pitt #3
Ingrid Pitt #6 |
Ingrid Pitt #7 |
Ingrid Pitt #8 |
Ingrid Pitt #9 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #10 |
Ingrid Pitt #11 |
Ingrid Pitt #12 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #13 |
Ingrid Pitt #14 |
Ingrid Pitt #15 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #16 |
Ingrid Pitt #17 |
Ingrid Pitt #18 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #19 |
Ingrid Pitt #20 |
Ingrid Pitt #21 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #22 |
Ingrid Pitt #23 |
Ingrid Pitt #24 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #25 |
Ingrid Pitt #26 |
Ingrid Pitt #27 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #28 |
Ingrid Pitt #29 |
Ingrid Pitt #30 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #31 |
Ingrid Pitt #32 |
Ingrid Pitt #33 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #34 |
Ingrid Pitt #35 |
Ingrid Pitt #36 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #37 |
Ingrid Pitt #38 |
Ingrid Pitt #39 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #40 |
Ingrid Pitt #41 |
Ingrid Pitt #42 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #43 |
Ingrid Pitt #44 |
Ingrid Pitt #45 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #46 |
Ingrid Pitt #47 |
Ingrid Pitt #48 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #49 |
Ingrid Pitt #50 |
Ingrid Pitt #51 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #52 |
Ingrid Pitt #53 |
Ingrid Pitt #54 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #55 |
Ingrid Pitt #56 |
Ingrid Pitt #57 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #58 |
Ingrid Pitt #59 |
Ingrid Pitt #60 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #61 |
Ingrid Pitt #62 |
Ingrid Pitt #63 |
|
|
Ingrid Pitt #64 |
Ingrid Pitt #65 |
 Ingrid Pitt #66 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #67 |
 Ingrid Pitt #68 |
 Ingrid Pitt #69 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #70 |
 Ingrid Pitt #71 |
 Ingrid Pitt #72 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #73 |
 Ingrid Pitt #74 |
 Ingrid Pitt #75 |
|
Ingrid Pitt #76 |
 Ingrid Pitt #77 |
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 78
NEW |
|
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 79
NEW |
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 80
NEW |
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 81
NEW |
|
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 82
NEW |
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 83
NEW |
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 84
NEW |
|
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 85
NEW |
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 86
NEW |
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 87
NEW |
|
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 88
NEW |
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 89
NEW |
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 90
NEW |
|
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 91
NEW |
NEW Ingrid Pitt # 92
NEW |
Ingrid Pitt was born Ingoushka Petrov on 21 November 1937 in Poland to a German father and a Jewish mother, and during World War II she and her family were imprisoned in a concentration camp. She survived, and in Berlin, Germany in the 1950s met and married an American soldier and ended up living in California. After her marriage failed, she returned to Europe but didn't appear onscreen until well into her twenties.
In the early 1960s Ingrid was a member of the prestigious Berliner Ensemble, under the guidance of Bertolt Brecht's widow, Helene Weigel. She appeared in several minor roles in Spanish films in the mid 1960s, mostly uncredited, and had a small bit parts in films such as "Doctor Zhivago", and in co-starred in the low budget science fiction film "The Omegans", before landing the supporting role of undercover agent "Heidi", assisting Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton defeat the Third Reich in "Where Eagles Dare" (1968). In this, she appeared opposite Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. "They were great to work with, but ragged me all the time". After the film was finished, Clint said to Richard, "Shall we tell her now?" "What?", she demanded. "We had a bet. Who would get you in the sack first", Clint explained. "Who won?", she asked innocently - that floored them.
Her exotic looks and eastern European accent came to the notice of Hammer execs who cast Pitt as vampiress "Mircalla" in the sensual horror thriller "The Vampire Lovers" (1970) a film based on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's novella Carmilla and Countess Dracula. The film was a box office success with its blend of horror and sexual overtones, and Pitt was a beautiful, yet ferocious bloodsucker. While filming "The Vampire Lovers", Ingrid and the rest of the girls had a lot of trouble getting through scenes without giggling. In the scene where Ingrid has to drink from Kate O'Mara, her vampire teeth kept falling out and into Kate's cleavage. She eventually had to steal some gum from one of the stagehands to stick the fang back in.
Next up, Pitt was cast by Amicus Productions as another gorgeous vampire in the episode entitled "The Cloak" in the superb ""The House That Dripped Blood (1971). This time Ingrid played an actress appearing in horror films alongside screen vampire Jon Pertwee, but then later reveals herself to be a real vampire keen on recruiting fresh blood.
Ingrid donned the fangs for her third vampire film in a row, "Countess Dracula" (1971) which was loosely based around the legend of the 16th century blood thirsty Countess Elizabeth Bathory. Whilst not as successful, as the two prior outings, Ingrid Pitt had firmly established herself as one of the key ladies of British horror of the 1970s which elevated her to cult figure status.
She then appeared in the underrated "The Wicker Man" (1973) as an uncooperative civil servant annoying Edward Woodward in his search for a missing child, and in the film was briefly glimpsed nude in the bathtub. Further work followed in "Who Dares Wins" (1982), as "Elvira" in the adaptation of the 'John Le Carré' Cold War thriller "Smiley's People" (1982) (mini), and "Wild Geese II" (1985). Generally cast as a 'baddie', she usually manages to get killed horribly at the end of the final reel. "Being the anti-hero is great - they are always roles you can get your teeth into."
It was at this time that the theatre world also beckoned. Ingrid founded her own theatrical touring company and starred in successful productions of "Dial M for Murder", "Duty Free" (aka Don't Bother to Dress), and "Woman of Straw".
She has also appeared in many TV shows in the UK and USA including Ironside, Dundee and the Calhane and Doctor Who.
Ingrid made her return to the big screen in the 2000 production "The Asylum". The film starred Colin Baker, Patrick Mower, and daughter Steffanie Pitt. Director John Stewart billed it as a tribute to Hammer Films and Amicus Productions. In 2003, Ingrid voiced the role of 'Lady Violator' in Renga Media's production "Dominator". The film has the distinction of being the UK's first CGI animated film. After a period of illness, Ingrid returned to the screen in 2006 for the Hammer Films-Mario Bava tribute "Sea of Dust", a feature that brought her career full circle. Of minor note, Ingrid Pitt also narrates on the 1998 Cradle of Filth album entitled Cruelty and the Beast, though her narration was done strictly in-character as Elizabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess allegedly involved in witchcraft and murder.
Ingrid's first book, after a number of ill-fated tracts on the plight of the Native Americans, was a novel, Cuckoo Run, a spy story about mistaken identity. "I took it to Cubby Broccoli. It was about a woman called Nina Dalton who is pursued across South America in the mistaken belief that she is a spy. Cubby said it was a female Bond. He was being very kind."
This was followed by a novelisation of the Peron era in Argentina, where she lived for a number of years after falling foul of the establishment in England. "Argentina was a wild frontier country ruled by a berserk military dictatorship at the time. It just suited my mood."
In 1984 Ingrid, and husband Tony Rudlin were commissioned to script a Doctor Who adventure. The story, entitled "The Macro Men", was one of a number of ideas submitted by the couple, after she appeared in the season 22 DW story 'Warrior's of the Deep'. The plot concerned events surrounding the Philadelphia Project - a US military experiment during the Second World War to try to make the naval destroyer USS Eldridge invisible to radar - about which Pitt and Rudlin had read in a book entitled The Philadelphia Experiment by leading paranormal investigator Charles Berlitz. It involved the Doctor, and companion Peri, arriving on board the USS Eldridge in Philadelphia harbour in 1943 and becoming involved in a battle against microscopic humanoid creatures native to Earth but previously unknown to humankind. The writers had several meetings with script editor Eric Saward and carried out numerous revisions, but the story progressed no further than the preparation of a draft first episode script under the new title 'The Macros'.
In 1999, her autobiography, Life's a Scream (Heinemann) was published, and she was short-listed for the Talkies Awards for her own reading of extracts from the audio book. "I hate being second". The autobiography detailed the harrowing experiences of her early life in a Nazi Concentration camp, her search throughout the European Red Cross Refugee Camps for her father, and her escape from East Berlin, one step ahead of the Volkpolitzei. "I always had a big mouth and used to go on about the political schooling interrupting my quest for thespian glory. I used to think like that. Not good in a police state."
The Bedside Companion for Ghosthunters (Batsfords) is Ingrid Pitt's tenth book. It was preceded by the Bedside Companion for Vampire Lovers (Batsfords). The Ingrid Pitt Book Of Murder, Torture And Depravity was published in October 2000.
Several other books are in the pipeline. Ingrid's credentials for writing about ghosts spring from a time when she lived for a while with a tribe of Indians in Colorado. Sitting with her baby daughter, Steffanie, by a log fire, she was sure that she could see the face of her father smiling at her in the flames. "I told one of the others and he went all Hollywood Injun on me and said something like 'Heap good medicine'. I guess he was taking the mickey."
Other writing projects include different look at Hammer Films entitled The Hammer Xperience.
Ingrid writes regular columns for various magazines and periodicals, including Shivers magazine and Model and Collectors Mart. She also writes a regular column, often about politics, on her official website.
The Ingrid Pitt Fan Club is well represented internationally and has an Annual Reunion in London each November.
In spite of her busy workload, Ingrid still manages to visit conventions and film festivals in the UK, Europe and USA. "It's great meeting the fans. They tell me that I am more beautiful now than when I was making films a quarter of a century ago. All lies, of course, but sweet. And where else is an old bag like me going to get strapping young men and women whispering sweet nothings in her ear?"
Ingrid has a passion for World War 2 aircraft. After revealing her passion on a radio programme, she was invited by the museum at RAF Duxford to have a flight in a Lancaster. She has a student's pilot license and a black belt in karate.
in association with Amazon.co.uk
•
