Sid Haig spent most of his life around monsters.

Haig, an iconic actor in the horror genre, died on Saturday, Sept. 21 at the age of 80, according to a post on his Instagram page.

Decades before he ensured cult legend status thanks to his work in a run of shocking 21st century films for director Rob Zombie, Haig made his first major film appearance way back in 1967, co-starring with big screen legend Lon Chaney Jr., in director Jack Hill’s macabre cult classic shocker, “Spider Baby.”

One of Chaney’s last films and one of Haig’s first, “Spider Baby” stars Chaney as a caretaker watching over three deranged siblings, one of whom is played by Haig. The film continues to leave an impression on genre fans nearly 50 years after its initial release.

“It’s like every five years we get a whole new fanbase,” Haig told the Asbury Park Press in 2016. “The DVD sales have never stopped, and now it’s on Blu-ray with all kinds of extra features and stuff, it’s just amazing. It’s the only horror film that I know of that there’s not one drop of blood in it.”

Best known for his work as the villainous, clown-painted Captain Spaulding in Zombie’s “House of 1,000 Corpses” (2003) and “The Devil’s Rejects” (2005), Haig reflected on his early opportunity to collaborate with Chaney, a big screen icon thanks to his work in Universal’s “The Wolf Man” (1941).

“The first couple of days, I was kind of in awe because as a kid I used to go on Saturdays and watch all of his films in the theater,” Haig said. “Then all of a sudden there I am, working with him, co-starring with him.

“I’m probably the last person on Earth that can say ‘My first co-starring role was with Lon Chaney, Jr.’ That idea itself just kind of blows me away. He was so much fun to work with and just really a great guy.”

Haig spent much of his early career appearing in guest roles on classic television series, including “Star Trek,” “Batman,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Gunsmoke” and “Get Smart.”

But at a certain point, the repetitive work of playing countless villains, thugs and heavies began to wear on the actor.

“The only thing that got stale was at one point I was just so horribly typecast that it was stupid,” Haig said. “I can’t remember what the show was, but I actually did a modern day cop drama thing that was originally a Western I had done two or three years before. They just took the script, made it modern, put different clothes on us. It was the same story.

“It was that period in time when there wasn’t a lot of creativity going on in television. Everybody was doing it for the money and just cranking them out. But, that’s just what the industry is.”

After spending much of the early 1990s away from the camera, during which time he became a certified hypnotherapist, Haig got a call at home from Oscar-winner Quentin Tarantino, at the time developing his follow-up to the smash hit “Pulp Fiction” (1994).

Tarantino, working on what would become the Elmore Leonard adaptation “Jackie Brown” (1997), wanted Haig to appear opposite Pam Grier, his co-star in Jack Hill films such as “The Big Doll House” (1971), “The Big Bird Cage” (1972), “Coffy” (1973) and “Foxy Brown” (1974).

“(Tarantino) said, ‘I get it, you don’t want to play any more stupid heavies. I’ve written the part of a judge for you, and I won’t take 'no' for an answer.’ I said, ‘Well, OK boss,’ and so that’s how ‘Jackie Brown’ came about for me,” Haig said.

Not long after “Jackie Brown,” Haig began his collaborative relationship with Zombie, which has so far lasted for five films.

“Rob is kind of loose, he’s easy-going and gets in your head and lets you go with it,” Haig said. “So, I just had an opportunity to just kind of go nuts (with ‘House of 1,000 Corpses'), and thank God it worked.”

Haig, with nearly 150 acting credits to his name, made one of his final on-screen appearances in Zombie's "3 From Hell" earlier this month; Haig returned as Spaulding one final time.

"I knew it was very important to Sid that Captain Spaulding make one more round and he did," Zombie wrote on Facebook on Monday morning. "Sid's time in the film is brief. He was in rough shape that day, but he gave it his all and made his scene very memorable."

"As we were making 'House of 1000 Corpses' neither of us knew he was creating a character that would live on and grow in popularity every year," Zombie added. "Sid told me many times how thankful he was for the Captain and how that character changed his life. He had completely given up on acting and now suddenly had found a whole new audience at the age of 60. I know he was thrilled and blown away by that fact."

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