Best known for creating and playing the popular character Coffin Joe, Brazil’s first horror icon, filmmaker/actor José Mojica Marins has sadly passed away at the age of 83.

The Brazilian master of horror introduced Coffin Joe (Zé do Caixão) in 1964’s At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul, an undertaker who prowls the city in search of a female to bear him a son.

The character went on to become a cinema icon in Brazil, subsequently appearing in nine films including “Coffin Joe Trilogy” movies This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse and Embodiment of Evil. In 1974’s The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe, Marins put a meta twist on his own creation, playing both himself and the fictional character with a black top hat and long fingernails.

Coffin Joe has been referred to as “Brazil’s National Boogeyman” and “Brazil’s Freddy Krueger,” which should give you a good idea of how popular the character is in Brazil.

José Mojica Marins also directed the horror films Nightmare (1965), Awakening of the Beast (1970), Hellish Flesh (1977), and the segment “Viral” in The Profane Exhibit (2013).