Academy Award nominated actress, and horror genre regular Samantha Eggar has died.
Born on March 5th 1939, Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar hailed from Hampstead, London.
Beginning her professional career in 1962, Eggar appeared in several Shakespearian stage productions, including Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Around this time, she also began her career before the camera, appearing in the films Dr. Crippen and The Wild and the Willing.
Moving to America with the intention of landing television work, Eggar was personally selected by director William Wyler to play the lead in his 1965 psychological horror film The Collector.
With this role, Eggar would win a Golden Globe and earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. This career momentum led to the actress appearing in high-profile projects like Walk, Don’t Run, opposite Cary Grant, and the musical classic Doctor Dolittle.
Continuing to work steadily, Eggar would make a return to the horror genre with 1972’s giallo The Dead are Alive. She would immediately follow this with another genre turn in A Name for Evil.
1977 saw the actress work opposite Halloween’s Donald Pleasence in the killer cat anthology film The Uncanny.
With 1979’s The Brood, Eggar attained the role she is arguably best remembered for. The film sees Eggar play a woman giving birth to a brood of psychotic children, which are a physical embodiment of her homicidal rage and frustration. As well as being considered Eggar’s finest genre performance, The Brood is often listed as one of David Cronenberg’s best films.
1981 would see Eggar star in the Mexican-American horror production Demonoid, an offbeat tale detailing the killing spree of a supernaturally possessed hand.
Curtains, released in 1983, would be Eggar’s last genre role in her prolific horror career. The slow-burn slasher has since attained cult status, with Eggar’s performance as Samantha Sherwood often singled out for praise.
Though her career slowed following Curtains, Eggar would continue to periodically appear in film, and more frequently on television. The actress had guest spots in popular shows like Murder, She Wrote, The Love Boat, Starsky and Hutch, Fantasy Island, and a 20-episode guest stint on the soap opera All My Children.
Eggar’s final role came in 2012, with a voice spot on two episodes of the animated musical comedy series Metalocalypse. In the final decade of her life, Eggar maintained a very low profile, rarely granting interviews or appearing in public.
Samantha Eggar died at her home in Sherman Oaks, California on October 15th 2025. No cause of death has been given as of this writing, with Eggar’s death not officially announced until October 20th. She is survived by her children Nicholas and Jenna Stern. Samantha Eggar was 86 years old.
Rest in peace, Samantha.
