Halloween Producer Moustapha Akkad Receives Tribute Bench in South Pasadena

A casual horror fan may only think of John Carpenter when talking about the making of Halloween. However, it would not have been possible without producer Moustapha Akkad, who continued to make Halloween sequels until his passing in 2005. Today, his son continues his work on the Halloween series and we have news on a tribute bench that was recently placed in South Pasadena at the location where Halloween was filmed in 1978:

On Monday, February 27, the city of South Pasadena, California installed a rare permanent tribute to HALLOWEEN producer Moustapha Akkad on a city street where the iconic film was shot in 1978. Sitting at the corner of Oxley and Fairview (across from the “Strode house”) is a bench, under which a plaque says the following:

In Loving Memory of Moustapha Akkad
Known to the world as the Godfather of the HALLOWEEN film series.
Your Legacy lives on…
Filmed in So. Pasadena 1978

HALLOWEEN fan and 2003 25th Anniversary convention organizer Paul Swearingen worked with city of South Pasadena employee Sheila Pautsch to see the project through to completion. “Being a former resident of South Pasadena, where the first movie was made, I knew when someone passed away, the city would, many times, have a bench or tree planted in the park, along with a memorial plaque,” shares Swearingen. “I asked the if we could possibly do it near or on a location where the film was shot, and the city council agreed.”

“I am humbled by the generosity shown by the city of South Pasadena with the memorial to Moustapha,” says Malek Akkad, son of Moustapha, and producer of the last five HALLOWEEN films. ”The city was as much a character in the original HALLOWEEN as the cast, and this bench is a great way to celebrate our shared history and my father’s legacy. He would have been very proud.”