- During the filming of the dinner scene towards the end of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Gunnar's character Leatherface was supposed to cut the finger of Marilyn Burns' character with a knife. Gunnar was having trouble working the fake-blood dispenser and was very fatigued by the heat and long hours of doing take after take, so unbeknown to everyone but him and Marilyn, he simply cut her for real, which is the take used in the film.
- Was asked to reprise the role of Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), but declined, claiming that he was insulted by the idea of the original 1974 film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), being remade.
- Shaved his beard off for the role of Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). He never shaved it off again.
- Said in a TV interview that he is so unlike his The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) character that when people who meet him learn that he played Leatherface, they often react in total shock.
- Gunnar Hansen starred in the 1974 feature film that became a classic among horror-movie aficionados and spawned a series of sequels. In the film, friends visiting their grand-father's house are hunted by "Leatherface," a chain-saw wielding psychopath wearing a mask made of human skin. Hansen's character in the movie "is one of the most iconic evil figures in the history of cinema," his agent, Mike Eisenstadt told the Associated Press upon his death on Saturday, November 7th, 2015. In 2013, Gunnar Hansen published "Chain Saw Confidential," which gave readers a behind-the-scenes look at how the film was made. Hansen lived in Maine for approximately 40 years, where he was an actor and writer. Born in Reykjavik, Iceland, On March 4, 1947, Hansen moved with his family to Maine when he was 5 years old. Six years later, the family moved to Texas. As a 26-year-old graduate student at the University of Texas, Hansen heard about a horror movie being shot somewhere around Austin, Texas. At 6-foot-4 and 280 pounds of body size, he had what it took to be the looming hulk of "Leatherneck," but director Tobe Hooper still had his doubts. Asked by Hooper if he was violent, Hansen replied no. Asked if he was crazy, he said, "Not in the way you mean." "And then," Hansen recalled in a 2004 interview, "he got this worried look and said, 'Can you do it?' And I said, 'Oh yeah, it's easy.' And Hooper said, 'OK, you've got the part.' " Over six weeks of filming more than 12 hours a day, Hansen's total pay was about $800. Hansen appeared in a few films afterwards, but he also made his living as a writer. He wrote a book about barrier islands from Texas to North Carolina, and scripted documentaries about the Maine coast and the state's Native Americans. Hansen's death was caused by pancreatic cancer, survived by Betty Tower, his partner of 13 years.
- After acting in the movie _Demon Lover, The (1977), he decided to quit acting and continue his dream of writing, but after being offered many jobs that he refused (including The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and Eaten Alive (1976)) he decided that he could both be an actor and a writer.
- Uses a chain saw in at least one movie every decade. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988), Mosquito (1994) and Chainsaw Sally (2004).
- Was a football player in high school; also worked as a bar-bouncer prior to acting.
- Uncle of Kristin Hansen.
- Worked as a computer operator outside of high school.
- Currently casting and re-writing the movie _Last Horror Picture Show, The". (November 2005)
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