Dead: "Savage Weekend" actor Christopher Allport

In a bit of sad news, Fangoria reported on Friday that Christopher Allport, an actor who appeared in numerous genre projects including personal fave Dead & Buried (he gets whacked right at the beginning), Tobe Hooper's Invaders from Mars remake, and the better-than-it-has-any-effing-right-to-be killer snowman movie Jack Frost.

But queer horrorhounds may know Allport best for his role as Nicky, the bar-brawling sissy, in the pervy 1979 slasher Savage Weekend. In a day and age when the few gay characters who made it onto screens were mincing, weak, and made vulnerable by their sexuality (see: Cruising, Cruising, Cruising), Nicky was a standout in that he was mincing, aggressive, and batshit crazy.

In an early scene, Nicky - after being taunted at a roadhouse by some upstate yokels for ordering a martini, wearing short-shorts and basically making Richard Simmons look like Steve Altas - accuses one of his tormentors of sleeping with his mother and unexpectedly flies into a furious rage, breaking beer bottles and pool cues over the heads and backs of the unsuspecting hicks and hissing, "I wasn't raised in the South Bronx for nothin!" before strutting safely out of the bar.

Of course, being a slasher movie, things don't go that well for Nicky for too long, and he meets his death while bedecked in pantyhouse and full makeup. Atta girl!

Anyway, back to Allport: the poor guy died when he was caught in an avalanche while skiing in San Bernadino (Allport wrote a story for the LA Times in 2004 about the pleasures of back-country skiing). He was 61 when he died and had been married to his wife, Carolyn Bohannan, for nearly 30 years.

And no, the irony of the fact that the guy starred in a movie about a killer snowman and died in an avalanche has not been lost on me, nor should it be ignored. Don't blame me, blame the universe.