Lee Grant

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Great Performances: Visiting Hours (1982)

Published April 15, 2026 by biggayhorrorfan

Awardees: Lee Grant, Linda Purl and Lenore Zann

Michael Ironside has rightfully gained a lion’s share of praise for his truly vile and understandably sadistic portrayal of Visiting Hours’ villain.

He definitely radiates eternal evil as he comes after Lee Grant, draped Sasha Velour-like in stolen jewelry, in the first third of the film.

But as all horror loving feminists and true connoisseurs of celluloid grit know, it is the three main women in this piece that truly make it a mini-classic of the 1980’s.

For those here unaware, Lee Grant plays a feisty, outspoken news anchor who earns women-hating Ironside’s wrath. After a first attack upon her life fails, Ironside’s character begins to stalk Grant in the hospital she is stationed at – putting many patients and (of course) plenty of nubile, full fleshed nurses in danger.

Grant brings a natural flamboyance and power to her role with her anger, fear and humility coming off as Actor’s Studio-natural. Even her more outlandish moments ring true as they fit her very visible character, a true queen of the power play. She also works well off the strong Linda Purl as her prime caretaker and a surprisingly subdued William Shatner as her boss.

Purl herself brings a clipped strength and a light vulnerability to her character, making her one of the most fascinatingly layered and relatable female characters in the slasher cannon.

Meanwhile, Lenore Zann, as one of Ironside’s ‘luckier’ victims, gives more recognizable motivation with her body language and a seductive glance than many Oscar nominees are capable of.

All three women ultimately make the harsh, often misogynistic violence of Visiting Hours serve a strong emotional purpose – and this is the rare horror extravaganza that will have you rooting for all three women until its bloody, gasping outset.

Originally published on the Horror Society website with minor revisions done for this reposting.

Review: I Said Yes to Everything

Published December 15, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

lee grant bookDamien: Omen II. Visiting Hours. The Swarm. Airport 77. The Spell. The Cage. Academy award winning actress and acclaimed documentarian Lee Grant has appeared in more genre outings than even her most disciplined fans can often recall. Those interested in detailed accountings of such offerings, though, may be a bit disappointed by Grant’s emotionally complex, extremely well written 2014 memoir I Said Yes to Everything.

She gives only passing reference to many of these projects here – ignoring others outright – and sums up her experience working on them by saying that she eventually discovered that good acting work could be done in properties that often didn’t meet her qualifications of artistic merit.

Still, some glittering factoids do emerge. She, happily, recounts the tale of Michael Caine falling asleep, on camera, while filming The Swarm. Self deprecatingly, she also recalls consenting to do her own water stunts on the set of Airport 77 after witnessing the distinguished Olivia de Havilland, gleefully, taking a bath to make one of that film’s many scenes of destruction seem more realistic. Slasher Visiting Hours is also given a bit of notice as being the project that made the ever age conscious performer determine that her days as a leading lady were over and that it was time to devote her talents to behind the camera opportunities.lee grant damien

Nicely, Grant does major justice to the years she spent trying to regain her life after her complicated first marriage left her blacklisted by the House of Un-American Activities. The trauma of that relationship and her triumphant return to a career are definitely book highlights. Her honesty about her struggles to connect with an adopted daughter is also a revealing and intimate look at how hard parenthood and life, in general, can be.

Of course, all is not hardship and Grant’s tales of her loving, eccentric family and coming of age adventures lighten the atmosphere, giving readers a well rounded portrait of a woman who has successfully forged her own path despite all that life has thrown at her.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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