Barbara Steele (born December 29, 1937) is a British actress. She's best known as the scream queen of Italian gothic horror movies of the 1960s. Her breakthrough roll came in Italian director Mario Bava's Black Sunday (1960). It's now hailed as a masterpiece of the Italian gothic horror film. Steele starred in a string of gothic horror classics including: The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962), The Ghost (1963) (Dir.: Riccardo Freda) as well as the Roger Corman adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Pit and the Pendulum." According to Kim Newman's Nightmare Movies (1988), is on record as saying that she never wanted "to climb out of another f---ing coffin again".
Partial filmography
- La maschera del demonio (Black Sunday) (1960)
- The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
- L'Orribile segreto del Dr. Hichcock (The Horrible Dr. Hichcock) (1962)
- 8½ (1963)
- Lo Spettro (The Ghost) (1963)
- Danza macabra (Castle of Blood) (1964)
- I Lunghi capelli della morte (The Long Hair of Death) (1964)
- Caged Heat (1974)
- Shivers (1975)
- Piranha (1978)
- Dark Shadows (tv series revival) (1991)
- Fellini Ungrateful Celebration (2005)