First victim in 1974's ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ has San Antonio ties

When actor William Vail fell to the floor during the biggest scene of his debut film in 1974, everyone thought he was actually hurt. Vail was playing a character named Kirk, the very first victim of the cannibalistic killer known as Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) in the horror classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

“I was so pumped up for the scene and [Gunnar] was pumped too,” Vail, 72, told MySA during a recent interview.

In the scene, Kirk, who is on a road trip with his girlfriend and friends, walks into a farmhouse alone to see if its inhabitants have some extra fuel they can spare for their gasless van. He trips on a metal ramp that leads into a small, creepy room. When he finds his balance, he’s met by Leatherface, the film’s main villain, who bashes his head with a sledgehammer.

“[Gunnar] hit me so hard,” Vail said. “It was with a foam rubber hammer, but the hit was so hard that it broke all the blood vessels and one of my eyes. I just crumpled to the ground, and the director and everybody came running. They were sure I was dead.”

At the time, there was no such thing as safety standards on movie sets or precautions for filmmakers to follow while shooting stunts, especially on a low-budget slasher flick like Texas Chainsaw.

“We couldn't afford stuntmen,” Vail said. “There was no OSHA on the set. There was no protection. We were just making a movie.”

Vail was born in San Antonio in November 1950. According to him, his father was wounded in the Korean War and transferred to Fort Sam Houston to recover. His pregnant mother was living in Japan at the time and traveled to San Antonio to be by his side. A few days later, she gave birth to Vail. Vail studied drama for a few semesters at the University of Texas in Austin before landing the role of Kirk in Texas Chainsaw.

“We ended up living all over the world because my dad was in the Army and then later in the diplomatic corps,” Vail said. “So, I’ve lived in Central America, South America, Germany and all over the United States. That was the way I grew up.”

Next year, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Vail said he doesn’t feel like it’s been that long since he made the movie and is still amazed at the enthusiasm many fans have for it.

“It seems like yesterday that we made it,” Vail said. “I can still remember things that we did in the van and in the house. It’s incredible that people still care. We have the best fans ever. They are so serious about this movie.”

Vail never believed the original Texas Chainsaw would become the horror classic that it is today. Nor did he think it would expand into other media like comic books, video games and plenty of movie sequels, prequels and reboots over the years.

“I thought it was going to go to the drive-in [movie theater] and then die a little death,” Vail said. “But when you make a movie and present it, you never know how the audience is going to respond. They’ve taken [Texas Chainsaw] to different places we never knew it could go.”