Veteran actor Frank Langella has been fired from Mike Flanagan’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” following a Netflix investigation that found Langella acted inappropriately on set, a source close to the production confirmed to TheWrap on Wednesday evening.
Netflix had no comment on the situation and a rep for Flanagan did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
TMZ reported on Tuesday that Netflix was looking into allegations that the 84-year-old had been accused of sexual harassment, including making inappropriate comments to a female co-star on the set of the limited series.
Langella was halfway through his portrayal of mad patriarch Roderick Usher. According to Deadline, the part will be recast. The role of the decadent aristocrat was most famously played by Vincent Price in Roger Corman’s 1960 horror film.
The limited series, which is based on the short story by macabre master Edgar Allan Poe, also stars Flanagan regulars Katie Siegel, Carla Gugino and Henry Thomas, as well as Mary McDonnell, Carl Lumbly and Mark Hamill.
This is the third literary haunting Flanagan has adapted for Netflix: “The Haunting of Hill House,” based on the novel by Shirley Jackson, was his first limited horror series for the streamer, followed by “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” which was inspired by the work of “The Turn of the Screw” author Henry James.
Langella has won four Tony Awards, most recently in 2016 for the lead in Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” the same role that won Anthony Hopkins his second Best Actor Oscar. Langella was nominated for a Best Supporting Oscar for his role as Richard Nixon in “Frost/Nixon;” he had previously netted a Best Actor Tony for the role.
His films include “Dracula” (1979), “Dave,” “Captain Fantastic,” and “Robot & Frank.” He also played a KGB handler in FX’s “The Americans” and the executive producer of Jim Carrey’s fictional kids’ show on Showtime’s “Kidding.”