Hansen in character as Leatherface.

Gunnar Hansen (March 4, 1947 – November 7, 2015)

Gunnar Hansen, who terrorized moviegoers as the psychotic, chainsaw-
wielding Leatherface in 1974’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” has died. 

According to his agent, Mike Eisenstadt, Hansen died Saturday evening of
pancreatic cancer at his home in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Eisenstadt
described Hansen’s “Chainsaw” character as “one of the most iconic evil
figures in the history of cinema.”

Hansen was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, and moved to the U.S. when he was
five. He lived in Maine until age eleven, when his family moved to Texas, where
he attended both Austin High School and the University of Texas at Austin. He
majored in English and mathematics as an undergraduate, and then went to
graduate school in Scandinavian Studies and English.