Roland Topor(1938-1997)

Roland Topor (1938-1997) was a French illustrator, painter, writer and filmmaker. In 1962 he created the Panic Movement (mouvement panique), together with Alejandro Jodorowsky and Fernando Arrabal. Topor wrote the novel "The Tenant" (1964), which was filmed by Roman Polanski as Le locataire (1976) (a remake of the film, Le nouveau locataire (2013), was released in 2013). The book was re-issued with a new introduction by Thomas Ligotti, a selection of short stories by Topor, a representation of Topor's artwork and an essay on the Polanski film version. Topor published several books of drawings, including "Dessins panique" (1965), "Quatre roses pour Lucienne" (1967) and "Toporland" (1975). With filmmaker René Laloux, Topor made "The Dead Times" (1964), Les escargots (1966) and their most famous work, the feature La Planète sauvage (1973).

In 1982 he creates with Henri Xhonneux the popular French TV series Téléchat (1982), a parody of news broadcasts featuring puppets of a cat and an ostrich. Topor also worked as an actor, his most famous part being Renfield in Werner Herzog's Nosferatu, fantôme de la nuit (1979).