Tom Morga: the iron man of slasher icons!

Tom Morga as Jason with Dick Warlock on set

So,this post the other day made me think about Tom Morga and how he has pretty much been the Jack-of-all-trades of slashers. A lot of slasher fans may not know this, but Tom has donned the hockey mask as Jason (and Roy), the dead-skin mask as Leatherface and the white mask as Michael Myers putting him into an elite group of people to have done that-- just one (him). Kane Hodder has come close; he portrayed Jason himself and did a good amount of Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre III.




Tom's crowning role has to be (as far as slasher fans are concerned) his portrayal of Roy Burns and Jason Voorhees in Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning, but let's not forget how great of a stuntman Tom is. Tom has put work in so many genre movies it's really hard to list them all- titles including, but not limited to; The Ghostbusters, Star Trek, Phantom Of The Mall, The First Power, Spiderman and the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies. However, some people may be a little shocked to hear that Tom was the stuntman hired to play Michael Myers in Halloween IV: The Return Of Michael Myers, but was fired and the job was given to a larger George P. Wilbur. Tom did shoot some scenes included a lot of the scenes at the beginning where Michael was in bandages. As if this was not enough, two years prior Tom just finished doing stunts for Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part II, one of the tasks he has was playing the Nubbin's puppeteer Leatherface in the beginning of the movie.

Here's a little excerpt from Shivers Of Horror where Tom mentions it:

I’ve done other well known characters like Jason . I played Michael Myers in the first part of “Halloween IV”, and did a scene as Leatherface in “Chainsaw II” . But I think “Friday the 13th, part V” was the best for me . It was a pleasure to have been involved in the making of one of the Jason movies . From being on 13, part V, I have good memories and good friends and feel privileged that there are fans out there who know of me, of what I did in the movie, and who might hold this one, among others, as special for themselves .

Half of what I did as Michael Myers in Halloween 4 was when he was wrapped in gauze. I killed the mechanic in the garage, and was standing in the kitchen of the restaurant when Donald Pleasance shot at me over the lunch counter. Then, I drove the tow truck through the garage door and tried to run him down, causing the gas station to blow up. I was in a couple other scenes, one where I frightened Jamie with my reflection in a mirror, and later where I killed the girl in the house with the shot gun. I believe I was seen at a distance lurking around the neighborhood as well. I did other scenes, but I don't think they made it into the movie.

Let's just go ahead and say if there was such of a thing as a Slasher Icon Hall Of Fame that Tom would be a first-ballot inductee. Feel free to visit Tom at TomMorga.com!