American actor
Edwin Neal |
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 Edwin Neal at the TCM panel at Days of the Dead Indianapolis 2012. |
| Occupation | Actor |
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| Years active | 1972–present |
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Edwin Neal is an American actor, perhaps best known for his role as the hitchhiker in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.[1] He has been a voice talent and actor for years appearing on screen and off, including three voices in Wii's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. He set a record doing 26 different voices in the only completely unedited version of all 103 episodes of Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets), which included the lead villain Berg Katse. Neal also provides three voices in the DC Universe Online game; those of Two-Face, Killer Croc, and Harvey Bullock.
Early life and career
Neal, after high school, studied at Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas, before moving on to acting and directing studies at the University of Texas at Austin[citation needed]. While there, Neal auditioned for the role of the Hitchhiker in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and got it. He has said that when auditioning he acted as an eccentric relative of his. The movie went on to become a cult classic.
Neal still continues to act. His most notable roles since The Texas Chain Saw Massacre were playing the Mercer interrogator in Oliver Stone's JFK, and one of Big Chuck's Henchmen in the 1993 movie My Boyfriend's Back. He has also done some voice work, for films, computer games and cartoons. Neal also annually tours worldwide making many public appearances as "The Hitchhiker" at horror conventions and related gatherings.
Honors
Neal was inducted into the "Hollywood Horror Hall of Fame" in 1993 alongside Vincent Price, and owns one of the world's largest movie poster collections, from 1900 to the present day. He received a Bronze Star for Valor during his service in Vietnam in 1969.
