As a girl, Ingrid Pitt struggled through the real-world horrors of Nazi concentration camps and East German secret police before eventually emerging as one of the most famous fanged faces to hiss at viewers from Hammer horror flicks.
Pitt's first film was the 1964 Spanish film about marauding invisible dinosaurs, "Sound of Horror", and although she played a variety of characters in a range of movies over her 20+ year career, it is her horror roles she is most celebrated for. While most fans remember her best for her role as the psychopathic "Countess Dracula" or as the vampiric corrupter Carmilla in "The Vampire Lovers (both made for Hammer in the early 1970s), I always think of her as the ill-fated diva in "The House That Dripped Blood" and as the evil queen of Atlantis in "Doctor Who: The Time Monster".
Pitt appeared steadily in films through the late 1980s, but she mostly retired acting at the end of the decade. She focused on writing, penning several books and numerous columns about the horror genre, and taking on only the occasional film role. Her final screen appearance was in the 2008 horror film "Sea of Dust".
Pitt passed away in 2010.