The Only Major Actors Still Alive From The Wicker Man

"The Wicker Man" is the gold standard of occult horror. Police Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward), a God-fearing Englishman, arrives on the island of Summerisle to investigate the reported disappearance of a young girl. Howie soon discovers the islanders are pagans and spends the movie angrily berating them. Soon, it becomes clear the cultural differences are more sinister than the proper way to worship.

The islanders' crops are failing, so Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) has plotted a virgin sacrifice to appease their gods. No one ever said the virgin had to be a young girl; no, it's the unmarried Howie, who is burned to death in an excruciating sequence as the Summerisle villagers sing.

Despite being underserved by producer/distributor British Lion Films (to the point where Lee had to promote the film on his own time), "The Wicker Man" is now regarded as a horror classic. 2023 was the 50th anniversary of "The Wicker Man," and so, sadly, most of the people who worked on it are no longer with us. Woodward and Lee have both passed (in 2009 and 2015, respectively), as have director Robin Hardy and screenwriter Anthony Shaffer. A few members of the supporting cast are still with us though (it helps they were young when they appeared in the film).

When Howie sleeps at an inn on his first night in Summerisle, local girl Willow MacGregor (Britt Ekland) dances nude in the other room. It's not just for titillation; Summerisle doesn't have the same taboos that the Christian world does. Famously, Ekland's presence in the film was cut in the edit. Her Swedish accent was dubbed over by English actor Annie Ross, while for her nude scene, the film used a body double ("bottom double" specifically).

In 1974, a year after "The Wicker Man" hit theaters, Ekland again appeared in a film with Christopher Lee — the James Bond flick "The Man With The Golden Gun." Ekland was the Bond Girl and Lee was the Bond Villain (though imagine if it was the other way around).

Ekland's acting career peaked early in the late 1960s/early 1970s; her credits in the 21st century are scarce. But she's still with us at age 81. For insights into her media sensation life at her fame's peak (including her relationships with Peter Sellers and Rod Stewart), read her 1980 autobiography "True Britt."

The girl Howie comes to Summerisle searching for is named Rowan Morrison (Geraldine "Gerry" Cowper). Howie first catches sight of her when the villagers begin their festivities, but after he "saves" her from sacrifice, he and the audience learn the bait and switch. Not only is he the real sacrifice, but Rowan is in on the scheme to lure him to his death.

Cowper was only 14-15 when she appeared in "The Wicker Man," but it wasn't her first time acting; she had an incidental role in Alfred Hitchock's penultimate film, 1972's "Frenzy." However, her acting career didn't take off. From the 1980s to the 2000s, she worked only in small or guest roles on British television, such as the sitcom "Only Fools and Horses," the police procedural "The Bill," and a two-year (2004-2006) turn on the long-running soap opera "EastEnders."

However, Cowper can always say that she was in "The Wicker Man" — literally say it, because she's still alive today.

Rowan Morrison isn't the only girl whom Howie encounters on Summerisle, nor the creepiest. The latter title belongs to Daisy (Lesley Mackie). When Howie enters the Summerisle schoolhouse and notices an empty desk (Rowan's), he saunters over and finds a beetle tied to a nail by a piece of string.

Daisy, sitting at the desk next to Rowan's, observes with sadistic joy across her face: "Little old beetle goes round and round, always the same way you see, until it ends up right up tied to the nail. Poor old thing." In case you don't get it — the beetle represents Howie, but the sergeant himself doesn't recognize this. Despite playing a small school girl, Mackie was a college graduate in her early 20s when she filmed "The Wicker Man." She also had a second job on set; instructing Ekland on how to speak with a Scottish accent (which ended up all being for naught).

Mackie is still alive today and evidently proud of her small role in "The Wicker Man" (she's admitted that because most of the cast has died, that means a lot of the press attention falls on her). As recently as 2023, she's given interviews about her role in the film (specifically with the BBC). She also returned as Daisy for Hardy's 2011 sequel, "The Wicker Tree."

Mackie doesn't have many film credits, but she kept acting onstage after "The Wicker Man." In 1986, she won an Olivier Award for her performance as Judy Garland in "Judy," a play written by her late husband Terry Wale.