A Eulogy for Actor David Bretag: 1966 to 2026

by Robert Long II ©2026

Sometimes, some searches end in sorrow. I had been trying to find my old friend David J. (Bretag) Harrington for nearly 40 years. He acted in a couple of my horror movies in the mid 1980s. After 1986, he disappeared.

David Bretag was born in Chicago in September of 1966. He was adopted, and his family moved to the Quad Cities. I had met Dave in drama class in the Fall of 1983. We were both students at Davenport Central High School. I was a Junior, Dave was a Sophomore. Our drama class was taught by Mike Tandy, just 30 years old and a graduate of St. Ambrose College. I believe he also taught English.

Drama was in the afternoon. It was a mixture of a motley group of fun, creative smart-asses. Myself? I had been in plays and musicals since grade school. Somewhat ironic, as I was an un-diagnosed autistic whom had a great difficulty connecting with people. Perhaps drama was a way for me to blend in, and try to fit in. 

David Bretag was one of the cooler people you would see around school. He was a tall, lanky blonde and looked like a cross between Nicholas Cage and the lead singer of Kajagoogoo. He often sported OP t-shirts and trendy polos. 

One of our earliest exercises was Greek theater. That involved everyone bringing a white bed sheet from home to wear as togas. We were broken into groups and had to come up with some pompous, intellectual skit. I forget who else was part of our tribe was, but I do know Bretag was part of it. 

Memory is fuzzy here, but our group decided to do a Greek chorus of The Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go?” as spoken word. So picture five high school dudes, dressed in bedsheets, lead by Bretag expounding with “Darlin’ you’ve got to let me know. Should I stay or should I go?” with the rest of us chiming in with subsequence lyrics. This is all taking place on the high school stage, with the rest of our class cracking up in the audience seats. Mr. Tandy? I imagined he did a face palm.  

The Fall got into full swing, and the drama department got ready for the production of FRANKENSTEIN. Dave got the part of the local constable, while I ended up doing the creature’s makeup. At this time, Dave had gotten a new wave hair cut and dyed it black for the part. In his costume he looked like Rick Ocasak dressed as Count Dracula. Hell, he was taller than Frankenstein’s monster. I was in the audience and got some Super 8mm footage of opening night. 

The drama class saw that I had a movie camera, and I expressed to them that I wanted to make a horror movie, and needed actors. I was going to do my version of the 1978 John Carpenter film HALLOWEEN. Good Lord! Everyone wanted to try out for it! I lucked out because I had an overabundance of people to choose from. Bretag? He got the lead male part – Michael Myers. Yes, his height had a lot to do with that. 

This was a fast shoot – maybe over two weekends. Dave’s costume consisted of a white painted Frankenstein’s monster mask, a black Pink Floyd t-shirt, a tan jacket, bluejeans, a hiking boots. Not exactly screen accurate.  

A couple funny things about the shoot with David. One, he had to kick in the fence door to my backyard, so he meant all Jackie Chan on it. It’s hilarious to see a Herman Munster-like Michael Myers attacking my family’s property. Secondly, David had to carry actor Timothy Reed after he kills his character. Now, Dave was athletic and lanky. I’m not sure about his upper body strength. One can see in the footage that Tim’s “corpse” starts to hang on for dear life as Bretag struggles to carry his body into the house. 

We were going to try to record an audio track for it one weekend. Unfortunately, none of the actresses showed up, so all the guys did all the parts – male and female. Needless to say, it ended up hilarious, with Dave and Tim throwing in ad-libbed lines in falsetto. I still need to synch that audio up to the movie. 

Dave continued drama class into 1984. However, he had joined the swim team, so he wasn’t involved in the Spring play the class was doing. Meanwhile I was working on my first original horror movie, AS DARKNESS SETS IN. I was getting the usual suspects back for this one, as well as a couple new people. 

Turns out, 1984 was NOT a good year for me. I won’t go into it here. Regardless, my drama buddies rallied around me during a tough time, and helped keep my mind off things by helping me get the movie from page to screen. Dave’s part was hilarious. He played a partier, and he breakdances into his death scene. 

AS DARKNESS SETS IN was a weird experience. David had a MUCH bigger role in it. We did a location exterior shoot with the whole cast. The problem is that the film got stuck and jammed in the movie camera; meaning I lost three minutes of shot scenes. In Super 8mm terms, that’s like losing a 5th of the movie! A couple of the guys were on the swim team and weren’t available full time for the rest of the shoot. I ended up having to revise the film, and most of Dave’s scenes had to be scrapped.

Fall 1984 going into Spring 1985, I didn’t see Bretag as much; however, I do remember a couple of memorable moments. The first? A group of us got together – David included – and… how do I put this? Well, we got into being a bunch of hooligans. There was a part of town called the East Davenport Heights. Well, I won’t go into details. Suffice it to say, one night we raised some hell and weren’t exactly boy scouts that evening.  The other time? A bunch of us – with Dave – ended up driving down to Buffalo, IA and spent the evening exploring and running around an abandoned ball bearing plant. What the hell were we thinking?

The last time I saw David was after the Class of 1986 had graduated. I was doing some yard work during the Summer, and a car pulled up to the driveway. Dave and his current girlfriend jumped out and walked up. We exchanged pleasantries, made small talk. Bretag then asked if I’d mind showing his girlfriend the movies on the projector. Well, who was I to say no to him? I dropped everything, dusted off the projector, and showed them both the movies. We had a good time for 40 minutes. That was the last time I saw him in person.  

He disappeared for the next four decades. Turns out he had a full life, and was married (he took his wife’s last name), and had a son. He lived in Buffalo, IA. His career? He was a locomotive engineer for Kansas City. He had a great love of automobiles, and there is footage of Dave and a friend tearing down vehicles to rebuild them. 

David had suffered a battle with cancer for the last seven years, and passed on April 7th, 2026 in Davenport, IA at 59. Dave was very chill and a lot of fun to hang around. There were a group of us that had a few wild adventures in high school. David Bretag was super guy, and he will be very much missed. Rest in peace, big guy.

Both As Darkness Sets In and my version of Halloween can be found on Youtube.