Character actor Ken Tobey is well known to boys of the 1950’s because of his starring roles in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, It Came From Beneath the Sea, and playing two parts in Disney’s Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie at the Alamo and Jocko on Mike Fink’s keel boat.

Boys of the 70’s will know Ken as the villainous sheriff in Billy Jack or Robert Culp’s boss in I SPY.

However, he will always be known to all sci-fi fans as the man who killed The Thing in Howard Hawk’s 1951 classic Sci-Fi movie The Thing from Another World. Tobey killed it with an ‘arc of electricity’ according to the news reporter in the movie and saved the world like Noah did with 'an ark of wood'.

When the sci-fi fans of the ‘50’s grew up and became movie directors in the ‘80s, they were sure to hire Ken Tobey. You’ll see Ken in:  Airplane, The Howling, Strange Invaders, Gremlins 1 & 2, Honey, I Blew up the Kid, Hellraiser-Bloodline, the 80’s TV Twilight Zone, Inner Space and Starman.

In 1999, I was talking with my father about The Thing.  I said to him, “When televisions were smaller, all of us boys thought that when Ken Tobey slammed the door on the Thing’s hand, that it was the Thing's fingers (made of vegetable matter) that flew through the air. But now with larger TV screens and clearer DVDs, I can see that it was wood splinters from the busted door-jam that flew.”

My dad said, “No, it was the Thing’s fingers for sure.”

I said, “Do you want to bet on it?”

“Sure,” he said.

“Okay. Let’s go right to the source and ask the man that closed the door on the Thing. The man who was actually there.”

“What?”

“Yes,” I said. “We’re going to ask Ken Tobey, who'll be at the Hollywood Collector's Show two days from now."

My dad knew we would be driving to LA for our 7th time at the show, but he didn’t know who would be there.

The day arrived. My dad and I approached Ken Tobey’s table that had numerous photos of him, many from The Thing. “Hi, Mr. Tobey,” I said.

“Hello,” he replied, with a smile.

“This is my father and we’ve been debating about what flew through the air when you closed the door on the Thing’s hand; fingers or door splinters?”

“It was door splinters,” Ken replied quickly. Then graciously added for my father’s sake, “But it could have been fingers because he was made of vegetable material and could have grown them back like he did his arm when the dogs bit it off.”

I had Ken sign a photo of him in the role of Captain Hendry with his hand on the ‘electric fly trap’ switch about to kill the Thing.

Me and my dad talking about The Thing with Ken Tobey was the highlight of our movie relationship.

Okay, check out The Thing from Another World sometime.

And check out my movie Forbidden Power where I used similar staging and long takes in many of the scenes to win 38 international awards including:

2018 - Best Picture - Hollywood BITB Film Festival.