Pyke was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of vaudevillian David Pike and his wife Pauline. Pyke majored in theatre at UCLA in the 1960s, appearing in numerous student films, including one for Ray Manzarek, keyboard player of The Doors, called Induction, which also featured the Doors' vocalist Jim Morrison in a brief role. During that time period, Pyke was also associated with actor Del Close. From UCLA, Pyke went on to have a long career playing strange, often comic characters, usually in out-of-the-ordinary, low-budget, independent features, with some brief appearances in mainstream films. Some of his mainstream appearances, like a small part in the John Milius film Dillinger, ended up cut out of the final film. Although many of his better known films are in the horror genre, Pyke acted in everything from blaxploitation to musical comedies. He had a uniquely manic acting style, with a penchant for exaggerated physical comedy, marked by a distinctive, raspy voice. In the 1970s, Pyke's physical appearance was equally distinctive. Very short, slightly overweight, with a moustache and heavily balding head of wild black hair, he resembled the archetypal Mexican bandit of B-westerns or Sancho Panza. Besides his film work, Pyke acted in theater, musical revues, etc. During the 1970s, Pyke delivered a number of bizarre performances in off-beat films, including a creepy bus driver in the 1975 horror filmLemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural. Other notable 1970s Pyke appearances were in Dolemite, The First Nudie Musical and Spawn of the Slithis. Pyke played the part of Bebe Rebozo in an unreleased Richard Nixon satire called The Way He Was. Pyke may be best known for his role as the bar owner Taffey Lewis in the science fiction movieBlade Runner. Other noteworthy 1980s appearances include the teen comedy film Bad Manners , starring Martin Mull and Karen Black, and the horror comedy filmVamp, starring Grace Jones. Towards the end of the 1980s, Pyke's acting career slowed down and he moved over to television commercials. His last sizeable movie role was in the low-budget, straight-to-video 1988 horror film Hack-O-Lantern. Pyke last lived in Los Angeles, performing as a nightclub comedian after surviving quadruple bypass surgery. In 2004, he contributed to a book about obscure 1970s genre films, Gods in Polyester, reminiscing on Lemora, Dolemite and others, in a style very much in tune with his on-screen persona. Pyke also contributed pieces on Blade Runner and Hack-O-Lantern to the book Gods In Spandex, A Survivor's Account of 80's Cinema Obscura, a sequel to Polyester. He was also interviewed for an E! True Hollywood Story episode on David Carradine in 2000. Pyke's final film appearance was in Dealing, released posthumously in 2012.
Legacy
film reviewers Red Letter Media watched and discussed Pyke's film Hack-O-Lantern in episode 58 of their series Best of the Worst, released on October 26, 2017. Jay Bauman concluded that Pyke's performance was "the most compelling thing about the movie" and "consistently compelling," while Jack Packard added that Pyke was "the hallmark" of the film. Hack-O-Lantern was voted "best of the worst" of that episode, garnering two votes from the panel of four.
Partial filmography
Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural - The Bus Driver
* The best-regarded of Pyke's horror films, Lemora is the only film directed by Eating Raoul writer Richard Blackburn, who knew Pyke from UCLA.
* Pyke plays the singing and dancing Uncle Benny, one of the financial backers of the First Nudie Musical. He appears in a few key scenes in the beginning of the film, and later makes brief appearances until the end. One of the stars of the film is Cindy Williams of Laverne & Shirley fame.
