20. The Cousin Itt wig weighed more than 35 pounds (and the man who wore it is now a high school teacher).

John Salapatek (stage name: Franklin) got his big break nearly a decade prior to 1991's The Addams Family as Isaac, the mysterious boy preacher turned conduit for mass parricide in Children of the Corn. But winning the role of Gomez and Fester's incredibly hairy Cousin Itt, Salapatek said, was a career highlight.

He was one of five actors invited for the final callback. "At that point, they had not even asked me to do the Cousin Itt voice, but I had dreamed up the voice the night before. So ... as I was leaving, I was like, 'No, I can't leave yet. I have to do prove to you that I'm a very serious actor, so I'd like to do a monologue for you from Shakespeare's Hamlet.' And they were like, OK, this guy's kind of crazy, but we'll placate him. So I centered myself and then as I looked very dramatically, I went, '(Cousin Itt gibberish).' And they were laughing so hard, a couple of them were crying. Then the producer and director looked at each other and just right then, they said, 'You've got the part.' I was like, 'Are you sure? Really?'" he recalled asking with a laugh.

Of course, playing Cousin Itt proved to be more complex than speaking gibberish at a pitch only dogs can hear. In the first film, the Itt costume weighed more than 35 pounds. "It was insane," Salapatek said. "I only weigh a little over 100 myself." The actor wore a neck brace and a hoop skirt to give the costume shape. "They had a little fan element and between takes, I'd run the fan to cool myself off," he said. "There was only like a scuba-sized mask in the front that they could clip open between takes. I had no idea it would be that heavy and that hot. The first day, I plowed on through, but it's dark brown and it attracted the sun. I did two or three hours and I was ready to pass out."

For the second film, "they lightened it up 5 or 10 pounds by removing the layers of the hair," Salapatek noted. "It was a little bit better, a little bit easier."

Itt's hair was synthetic, but it still required a lot of maintenance. "There was a wrangler full time to take care of it and to make sure there weren't tangles and it looked good," the actor said. "I'm allergic to hairspray — which is ironic, of course (laughs) — so they had to use this lanolin spray to keep the tangles out, which is oil-based." On one occasion, when a light bulb exploded, it nearly caught fire. But luckily, an extra pulled him out of the line of fire. Literally.

"It was an endurance test being in the costume," Salapatek said, adding that working with Juliá and Huston made the experience worth the sweat and potential flames. "When the second one came up, I was more worried that they were going to replace me. The whole story with Grandmama and Carol Kane replacing Judith Malina, I was thinking, 'Oh boy, they're going to look for another name. Is Pee-Wee Herman going to take over my part or something?'" he said with a laugh. "But they called my agent and gave me a nice raise for the second one so I was very happy. Sorry, Pee-Wee Herman."

Shortly after the events of September 11, however, Salapatek decided to leave Hollywood behind for awhile and pursue another endeavor: teaching at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita, CA. Posters from his earlier movies line his classroom walls and Salapatek even created a screenwriting class at the high school. Now, he's looking to get back in the business a bit. "I wrote a comedy pilot for Courtney Gaines who was in the first Children of the Corn," the now-54-year-old Salapatek said. "We shot part of it last April and now that's being shopped … I just signed with an acting manager and just got new headshots and created my Actors Access account again. So we're gonna see what happens."