Camden Toy, the versatile character actor famed for playing a succession of demonic monsters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has died. He was 68.
Toy died Dec. 11, after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer, his representatives confirmed in a press release.
Often caked under layers of makeup as well as special prosthetics, Toy would be unrecognizable for many of his most well-known turns on Buffy and later Angel, playing one of the Gentlemen, the Prince of Lies and the demon Gnarl, among others, but his unmistakable physical acting would rank him and close friend Doug Jones as firm fan favorites.
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“This is hard,” Jones tweeted Wednesday. “So many memories including working together, decades of laughing, sharing mutual friends, get-togethers, travel, conventions, and huggles with each other and our fans. From Buffy on, 24 years blessed to have this friend. May he rest in God’s peace.”
Toy was born on May 31, 1955, in Pittsburgh, but grew up in Delmont, Pennsylvania. His father was an actor and makeup artist, and his interest in dramatic makeup and theater was piqued at an early age. In interviews, he would say he grew up in the theater, attending summer theater classes with the Apple Hill Playhouse.
Toy acted in small regional theater companies for many years before moving to New York. He was a founding member and for a period the artistic director of the Lower East Side theater company Todo Con Nada, which later closed.
In the early 1990s, he made his first forays into screen acting, appearing in bit-part roles. His big break came when he was cast in “Hush,” the 10th episode of season four of Joss Whedon’s seminal show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Toy, along with Doug Jones, Don W. Lewis and Charlie Brumbly, played the Gentlemen in the episode, ghouls who would steal people’s voices and cut out their hearts. The Gentlemen soon became iconic Buffy demons and are regularly cited by fans as the show’s most frightening and creepy villains.
Toy’s second iconic demon character on Buffy was the demon Gnarl, who appeared in the season seven episode “Same Time, Same Place,” and he played the demon Ubervamp in four episodes of the series. He also drew fan appreciation for his turn as the Prince of Lies in the episode “Why We Fight” in Whedon’s Buffy spinoff Angel.
Toy’s other television credits include appearances in The Mentalist, the crime drama series The Bay and the web series Goodnight Burbank.
Outside of acting, he also worked as a film editor, editing several shorts, including Marc Rosenbush feature Zen Noir (2004) and Buffy makeup artist Robert Hall’s film Lightning Bug (2004).
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