I watched the making of thriller the other day and there is a bit where all the zombies/dancers are behind the scenes having a laugh together while michaels song of off the wall is playing, heres the clip of them but its at 5:40 of it to see them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQwTJvqcELM
they seem like a fun bunch of people, does anyone know who they are or have worked with them or were even part of this group at the time? what was it like?
If you go to the full cast list it says there. I know one of them is called Ben Lokey, but that's all I can remember. That scary zombie that appears right at the very end of the end credits is a guy called Greg Cannom who's not a dancer he's an FX guy. Hope that helps.
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Not all are listed. Maybe we can piece together a list. To Ben, add Gary Chapman and Kim Blank. There are a bunch more who I can't make out on the "making of" video, and I'm trying to find a list somewhere on the Net.
Michele Simmons is at MJ's left. John Command is another.
xoxo Editgal
Is Janet Jackson in this do you know? Some say she is, others say she's not.
"I have met some dumb blondes in my time. But you take the taco, pal"
I doubt it. These were trained pros, not simply singers who move well. Or she was used for background.
xoxo Editgal
It was rumoured at the time that Paul MacCartney was one of the zombies, but I've never seen any real evidence of this. Anyone else hear that?
shareI heard that too, it was the ombie who opens his mouth and lets the blood pour out. I always heard it was Paul McCartney. Gotta be a rumour, i mean we would have heard all these years later.
"When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth"
I thought the zombie with blood coming from his mouth looked like the main actor, Andrew Hove, from the Subspecies movies, but he's not credited here or on his page.
shareHey everyone, for those asking whether or not Janet was in the video, it says in the trivia and in the cast list that she was an uncredited dancer. I assume it's correct. It seems like something she'd want to do with her brother, and she's always been a good dancer.
shareYep, Ben Lokey was one of them. He is probably most known as the slimy dance instructor Franco from "Breakin'." Tony Fields, a former Solid Gold dancer and the evil rock star from the horror flick "Trick or Treat" was a zombie as well. Sadly, Tony died years ago.
shareMy brother-in-law's dad is actually Ben Lokey, one of the zombie dancers in Thriller. He said the whole process was pretty much 3 days of hell...I guess they had to be in their heavy costumes all day which apparently were quite uncomfortable and hot and itchy, and there was just a lot of waiting around - but it was totally worth it of course haha. I haven't talked to him much about it, so this is about all I've gathered so far. Sorry it's not much. Hope this provides some insight! :)
shareVery cool, monika88! Ben's movie Breakin' has been on all weekend too! He played the sleazy dance teacher Franco. Ask him more about the Thriller shoot if you can!
sharethe two dancers on MJ's left and right are Lorraine Fields (MJ's right) and Michele Simmons (MJ's left). Simmons commented in an interview that the dancers were basically ripped off, given no credit, and were poorly paid for the video.
Nevertheless they both appeared in some of his later stuff, like "Moonwalker".
Fields is an actress in various stuff, but the IMDB listing doesn't mention "Thriller" at all - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0276307/
Simmons is a dance and sports medicine specialist, as far as I know.
read this very interesting article from the daily telegraph -
http://eartoear.com/pressreleases/telegraph/telegraph_jackson.html
I actually had it under pretty good authority that Janet was the zombie on Michaels right (left side of our screen) and Cheryl Singleton was the zombie on Michaels left (right side of the screen). In fact Cheryl is doing horror convention appearances now with the photo of her next to Michael during the video in the lavender/purple tattered dress.
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I was just wondering if anyone has been able to find a cast list for this? It has to be somwehere right?
shareI need to clear up some confusion. Originally I thought Janet was in the dance group for the video because of an article I read and from someone who claimed to be an expert on the video.
Fact is Janet had nothing to do with Thriller. I got to become acquaintances with Cheryl Sington who was on Michaels right hand side in the video and she confirmed that Janet was not present for the video or rehersals. As for the other dancers, she could give a list of names, she mentioned a number of different people when I spoke with her.
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on the cover i swear gary shandeling and one of the guys from spinal tap
shareI thought that was BS that they didn't mention the dancers in the credits. Especially after watching Ola Ray's acting and seeing her in the credits!
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father but through me." John 14:6
I think one of them was his sister Janet or something, it was the girl zombie with the bow in her hair.
And thee zombie with the beard is Rick Baker.
Y'all saying Janet was in the video but Janet has never mentioned being in Thriller. She hasn't said anything about it then I guess she wasn't in it. I heard Michael DeLorenzo who was Eddie Torres from New York Undercover was one of the zombies in the video. He known for being a dancer back in the days. I surprise none y'all mention him. He did Beat It music video too.
shareHi!
My name is Tim Lawrence and I was the only bald, blue zombie ('Tor') in the video. I was a special makeup fx assistant to Rick Baker. We weren't going to have access to the chorus dancers until 3 days before shooting so John Landis asked us (Rick's crew) to design and make zombies on ourselves so there would be some more interesting zombies beyond the chorus. John liked my version of 'Tor Johnson' (zombie from movie 'Plan 9 from Outer Space') so you will see me a lot in the video. I'm the first zombie to bust up through the floor in the old house. Thriller was my first Hollywood job and is still the most fun I ever had in my 25+ years in Hollywood.
~T.~