Early life

Haig was born Sidney Eddy Mosesian in Fresno, California, and was raised in an Armenian community. His father, Haig Mosesian, was an electrician. Haig's career began somewhat by accident. As a young man, his rapid growth interfered with his motor coordination, prompting him to take dancing lessons. At the age of seven years, he was a paid dancer in a children’s Christmas show, and later joined a vaudeville revival show.

Haig also displayed musical talent particularly for the drums, prompting his parents to buy him a drum set, on which he mastered a wide range of music styles, including swing, country, jazz, blues and rock and roll. He found it easy to earn money with his music, and signed a recording contract one year out of high school. Still a teenager, Haig went on to record the single "Full House" with the T-Birds in 1958, which shot to #4 on the charts.

The Pasadena Playhouse

When Haig was in high school, the head of the drama department was Alice Merrill, who encouraged him to pursue an acting career. Merrill had been a Broadway actress who maintained her contacts in the business. During his senior year, a play was produced in which Merrill double cast the show, to have one of her Hollywood friends assess the actors in order to select the final cast.

The Hollywood contact who saw Haig perform was Dennis Morgan, a big musical comedy star from the 1940s, who chose Haig for a prominent role in the play. Two weeks later, he returned to see the show and advised Haig to continue his education in the San Fernando Valley and consider acting as a career. Two years later, Haig enrolled in the Pasadena Playhouse, the school that trained such noted actors as Robert Preston, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. He later moved to Hollywood with longtime friend and Pasadena Playhouse roommate Stuart Margolin.

Acting career

Haig's first acting job was in Jack Hill's student film at UCLA titled The Host, which launched Haig's more-than-four decade acting career in over fifty films and 350 television episodes. He became a staple in Hill's films, such as Spider Baby, Coffy and Foxy Brown.

Haig was a regular player for producer-director Roger Corman. He appeared in George Lucas' THX 1138 and the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. His television credits include appearances in such programs as Batman, Gunsmoke, Get Smart, Mission: Impossible (at least eight appearances in eight different roles as a villain), Charlie's Angels, Jason of Star Command, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Dukes of Hazzard, Automan, MacGyver and The A-Team (in which he played a jailed motorcycle gang leader) and Emergency! (again as a motorcycle gang leader).

Haig retired in 1992, feeling typecast: "I just didn't want to play stupid heavies anymore. They just kept giving me the same parts but just putting different clothes on me. It was stupid, and I resented it, and I wouldn't have anything to do with it". Haig did not work in acting for five years, instead training and becoming a certified Hypnotherapist.

During this time, he was offered the role of Marsellus Wallace (later to be played by Ving Rhames) in Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino's second film. At the time, Haig was concerned that low budget television had been ruining his career and, at seeing the shooting script and the short number of days dedicated for each locale, he passed on the project. He has said that he always regretted this decision. Then, in 1997, Tarantino wrote the part of the judge in Jackie Brown specifically for Haig.

In 2003, Haig starred in Rob Zombie's debut film House of 1000 Corpses, as Captain Spaulding. The role revived Haig's acting career, earning him a "Best Supporting Actor" award in the thirteenth Annual Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, and induction into the Horror Hall of Fame. His image as Captain Spaulding has become iconic in today's horror genre. Haig reprised his role as Spaulding in Zombie’s sequel to House of 1000 Corpses, entitled The Devil's Rejects.

For this film, he received the award for "Best Actor" in the 15th Annual Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, as well as sharing the award for "Most Vile Villain" at the First Annual Spike TV Scream Awards with Leslie Easterbrook, Sheri Moon and Bill Moseley as The Firefly Family. He was also nominated as "Best Butcher" in the Fuse/Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, but lost to Tobin Bell's Jigsaw from Saw II.

Recently, Haig reunited with Rob Zombie once again, albeit briefly, in the director's Halloween remake, in the role of cemetery caretaker Chester Chesterfield. Sid Haig also reprised the role of Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie's animated film The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. Haig most recently starred in the independent horror film Brotherhood of Blood, which was shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he also appeared in The Lords of Salem (reuniting him with Rob Zombie), Hatchet 3 and Devil in My Ride.

Haig starred in the documentary film Vampira: The Movie, which based on Maila Nurmi's cult character Vampira.

Selected filmography

Year	Film	Role	Director	Notes
1960	The Host	The Fugitive	Jack Hill	Short film
1962	The Firebrand	Diego	Maury Dexter
1965	Beach Ball	Drummer for Righteous Brother	Lennie Weinrib
1966	Blood Bath	Abdul the Arab	Jack Hill, Stephanie Rothman
1967	It's a Bikini World	Daddy	Stephanie Rothman
	Point Blank	First Penthouse Lobby Guard	John Boorman
1968	Spider Baby	Ralph	Jack Hill
	The Hell with Heroes	Crespin	Joseph Sargent
1969	Pit Stop	Hawk Sidney	Jack Hill
	Che!	Antonio	Richard Fleischer
1970	C.C. and Company	Crow	Seymour Robbie
1971	THX 1138	NCH	George Lucas
	The Big Doll House	Harry	Jack Hill
	Diamonds Are Forever	Slumber Inc. Attendant	Guy Hamilton
1972	The Big Bird Cage	Django	Jack Hill
1973	The No Mercy Man	Pill Box	Daniel Vance
	Black Mama, White Mama	Ruben	Jack Hill
	Emperor of the North Pole	Grease Tail	Robert Aldrich
	Coffy	Omar	Jack Hill
	Beyond Atlantis	East Eddie	Eddie Romero
	The Don Is Dead	The Arab	Richard Fleischer
1974	Busting	Rizzo's Bouncer	Peter Hyams
	Foxy Brown	Hays	Jack Hill
	Savage Sisters	Malavael	Eddie Romero
1975	Who Is the Black Dahlia?	Tattoo Artist	Joseph Pevney	TV film
1976	Swashbuckler	Bald Pirate	James Goldstone
	The Return of the World's Greatest Detective	Vince Cooley	Dean Hargrove	TV film
1978	Evening in Byzantium	Asied	Jerry London
1979	Death Car on the Freeway	Maurie	Hal Needham
1980	Loose Shoes	Lone Stranger	Ira Miller
1981	Underground Aces	Faoud	Robert Butler
	Chu Chu and the Philly Flash	Vince	David Lowell Rich
	Galaxy of Terror	Quuhod	Bruce D. Clark
1982	The Aftermath	Cutter	Steve Barkett
	40 Days of Musa Dagh	Turkish general	Sarky Mouradian
1986	Amazing Stories Season 1: Episode 10 - "Remote Control Man"	Thug	Bob Clark	TV Film
1987	Commando Squad	Iggy	Fred Olen Ray
1988	Warlords	The Warlord
	Goddess of Love	Hephaestus	Jim Drake	TV film
1989	Wizards of the Lost Kingdom 2	Donar	Charles B. Griffith
1990	The Forbidden Dance	Joa	Greydon Clark
	Genuine Risk	Curly	Kurt Voss
1992	Boris and Natasha	Colonel Gorda	Charles Martin Smith
1997	Jackie Brown	Judge	Quentin Tarantino
2003	House of 1000 Corpses	Captain Spaulding	Rob Zombie
2004	Kill Bill: Volume 2	Jay	Quentin Tarantino
2005	The Devil's Rejects	Captain Spaulding/Cutter	Rob Zombie
	House of the Dead 2	Professor Curien	Michael Hurst	TV film
2006	Night of the Living Dead 3D	Gerald Tovar, Jr.	Jeff Broadstreet
	Little Big Top	Seymour	Ward Roberts
	A Dead Calling	George	Michael Feifer
2007	Dead Man's Hand	Roy 'The Word' Donahue	Charles Band
	Halloween	Chester Chesterfield	Rob Zombie
	Brotherhood of Blood	Pashek	Michael Roesch, Peter Scheerer
2009	Thirsty	Radio Evangelist	Andrew Kasch	Short film, Voice-only
	The Haunted World of El Superbeasto	Captain Spaulding	Rob Zombie	Voice-only
	Dark Moon Rising	Crazy Louis	Dana Mennie
2010	The Black Box	Radio Evangelist	Jonathan Lewis, David Sherbrook	Voice-only
2011	Creature	Chopper	Fred M. Andrews
	The Infliction	Dr. Gardner	Matthan Harris	Not yet released
	Razor	Sam	James P. Lay
	Mimesis: Night of the Living Dead	Alfonso Betz	Douglas Schulze
	The Sacred	The Stranger	Brett Donowho
	Zombex	The Commander	Jesse Dayton
	Go Straight to Hell	Doctor Phillips	Edward G. Norris	Pre-production
2012	The Lords of Salem	Dean Magnus	Rob Zombie
2013	Hatchet 3	Abbott McMullen	BJ McDonnell
	Devil in My Ride	Iggy	Gary Michael Schultz
2015	Bone Tomahawk	Buddy	S. Craig Zahler

[ Source: Wikipedia ]