Iain Quarrier

Iain Quarrier was a Canadian actor born on 12 April 1941 in Montreal, Quebec. He emerged on the international film scene in the mid‑1960s, appearing in a handful of avant‑garde and cult‑classic productions before abruptly leaving the industry. His early career was marked by collaborations with renowned director Roman Polanski, who cast him in the unsettling drama Cul‑de‑Sac (1966) and the darkly comic The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967). Behind the camera, Quarrier’s temperament sometimes sparked conflict: during the shoot of Cul‑de‑Sac the cinematographer Gilbert Taylor struck him after a disagreement, and later, while co‑producing One Plus One with Jean‑Luc Godard, the famed French filmmaker punched him in the face when dissatisfied with the film’s direction. Despite these turbulent episodes, Quarrier maintained a close friendship with Polanski and his then‑wife, the actress Sharon Tate, a bond that would later have a profound emotional impact. On the night of Tate’s murder by the Manson Family in August 1969, Quarrier was delayed on the set of Vanishing Point and missed the tragic event, a fact he later cited as a turning point that led to his retirement from acting after his final screen appearance in Wonderwall (1968). In the years that followed, Quarrier’s life took a darker turn. A mental breakdown in 1972 resulted in a stay at Bethlem Royal Hospital, and subsequent legal troubles included a 1996 police caution for indecent assault and a 2008 conviction for attempted abduction of a child, leading to a suspended prison sentence and a prohibitive activity order. By 2012 he was reported to be suffering from Korsakoff’s syndrome, a severe form of dementia, and he died in Kensington, London, in 2016.