Head Over to the Dark Side: 8 Proto-Goth Style Icons Inline

  • goth icons
    Expand
    Photo: Getty Images
    1/8

    Alice Cooper

    The theatrics of Alice Cooper’s earliest stage shows—snakes, skulls, and all—long prefigured “shock rock.”

  • goth icons
    Expand
    Photo: © Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
    2/8

    Vampira

    Horror hostess with the mostess Vampira, née Maila Nurmi.

  • goth icons
    Expand
    Photo: © Photos 12 / Alamy Stock Photo
    3/8

    Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

    A somnambulist murderer who sleeps in a coffin? Conrad Veidt’s portrayal of Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari (1920) might just be the O.G.—original goth, that is.

  • goth icons
    Expand
    Photo: Getty Images
    4/8

    Dave Vanivan (with former wife Lori)

    The Damned are most notable as a punk powerhouse, but even from the band’s earliest days, frontman Dave Vanian’s look brimmed over with a certain vampiric appeal.

  • goth icons
    Expand
    Photo: Getty Images
    5/8

    Lou Reed

    The monochromatic uniforms favored by Lou Reed and John Cale during their Velvet Underground days reached a dramatic new high circa the early ’70s when Reed struck out on his own.

  • goth icons
    Expand
    Photo: Courtesy of ABC
    6/8

    Morticia Addams

    The Addams Family matriarch Morticia Addams, as immortalized on the small screen by Carolyn Jones.

  • goth icons
    Expand
    Photo: Getty Images
    7/8

    Bryan Gregory

    Acne-scarred and imposing, with a single shock of white hair amidst a black mane, The Cramps’s founding guitarist Bryan Gregory cut a striking figure if ever there was one.

  • goth icons
    Expand
    Photo: © Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
    8/8

    Theda Bara

    Goth goddess of the silents Theda Bara—and friend.