Comments on: Rough day in Hollywood. - Darren McGavin dead at 83.

Rough day in Hollywood. - Darren McGavin dead at 83.

John Smallberries — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:07:00 -0800

Another favorite old actor has shuffled off the mortal coil. I will always remember Darren McGavin best as The Old Man, Ralphie Parker's father, in the best Christmas movie ever made (so says I!), but he had a long and active career in films and television.

Sigh. I hope there is lots and lots of turkey in heaven, and that the Bumpuses' dogs are nowhere to be found.

By: JHarris

JHarris — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:11:40 -0800

Wow. Kolchack and Mr. Limpet in one weekend. .

By: kalimac

kalimac — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:12:52 -0800

No! I loved him as Kolchak. The Old Man was icing on the cake. .

By: aladfar

aladfar — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:19:35 -0800

Oh Fuuuuuuudddddddggggggeeeee . . . I'm afraid I didn't know him outside of A Christmas Story, but I've seen the film countless times. A classic.

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:21:57 -0800

Kolchak was his best role...but seeing him in any performance was pretty damn cool. He had a "sensitive" gruffness about him. RIP.

By: fleetmouse

fleetmouse — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:22:22 -0800

Poor old Kolchak. The monsters got him at last.

By: tristeza

tristeza — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:22:24 -0800

"Fra-gee-lay...it must be Italian!" RIP, Mr. McGavin.

By: glenwood

glenwood — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:33:49 -0800

not a fingah!

By: mazola

mazola — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:34:49 -0800

By: mazola

mazola — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:39:15 -0800

Wow. Kolchack and Mr. Limpet in one weekend. ... who starred together in "No Deposit, No Return". Nuts.

By: jonson

jonson — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:51:09 -0800

First Knotts, then McGavin. Where will the curse of Hot Lead, Cold Feet end??!?!?!

By: unrepentanthippie

unrepentanthippie — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 22:00:44 -0800

I remember him as Mike Hammer. R.I.P. .

By: chococat

chococat — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 22:24:15 -0800

man, I never would have thought he was two years older than Don Knotts. And The Night Stalker freaked me out as a kid.

By: HTuttle

HTuttle — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 22:26:04 -0800

Kolchak yes. I've never yet been able to stomach A Christmas Story all the way through. I think it only works if watching it was part of your childhood. Sort of the same reason so many seem stuck on that rock music crap.

By: donfactor

donfactor — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 22:26:48 -0800

i'm old enough to remember him as Mike Hammer, the Mickey Spilane tough guy detective. of the 50's. Back in those days he stood out as someone who actually knew how to act and did.. Rest well, Darren

By: scarabic

scarabic — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 23:07:56 -0800

He was good in a few X-Files episodes, too.

By: psmealey

psmealey — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 23:16:18 -0800

Kolchak... always Kolchak. But... also as that really evil fixer guy in "The Natural". RIP, Darren.

By: lupus_yonderboy

lupus_yonderboy — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 23:45:14 -0800

. Kolchak, gone! Now I want to see the Mike Hammer work...

By: blastrid

blastrid — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 00:24:13 -0800

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 00:27:19 -0800

Shit.

By: cows of industry

cows of industry — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 00:34:21 -0800

By: kosher_jenny

kosher_jenny — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 00:47:07 -0800

By: Dreamghost

Dreamghost — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 00:57:43 -0800

By: pracowity

pracowity — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 01:02:00 -0800

And The Night Stalker freaked me out as a kid. The original one (1972) with the vampire scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. Old Dracula with his cape and bats seemed too artificial to be scary, but Janos Skorzeny seemed like he could be right behind me.

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 03:23:14 -0800

By: paddbear

paddbear — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 03:53:10 -0800

By: Corky

Corky — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 04:07:23 -0800

True story... back in '72, someone broke into my house while I was watching The Night Stalker. Alone. In the dark. Kolchak and I grabbed a baseball bat, called the police, and trembled. .

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 04:20:00 -0800

. Sylvester McCoy's outfit in Doctor Who was said to have been inspired by Kolchak's.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 04:33:20 -0800

Someone call Barbara Feldon and warn her to be verrrry careful.

By: Ber

Ber — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 07:00:23 -0800

He's up in heaven now, putting a horrible lamp in the window and changing fuses in world record time.

By: tizzie

tizzie — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 08:04:53 -0800

I think it only works if watching it was part of your childhood. We watched it at lunch at work a few years ago - I'd never seen it before - and while it was no "It's a Wonderful Life," it's a great movie to quote. "It's a major award!" "Frag- ee-lay!" "You'll shoot your eye out with that thing!"

By: briank

briank — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 08:05:07 -0800

From pracowity's IMDB link: Don Knotts said that one day, while he was filming scenes for this project in the San Francisco airport, a director approached him and said he would like to cast him in a dramatic film one day. Although it never happened, Knotts said he was flattered by the offer. The director was Sam Peckinpah. He probably couldn't come up with a movie that only needed one bullet. RIP, Don and Darren

By: font_snob

font_snob — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 08:20:49 -0800

As a kid, the monsters on The Night Stalker both terrified and intrigued me. I'd spend the night with my grandparents in their spooky old house, wait for them to fall asleep, and quietly sneak into the room where the television was so I could watch the program. Even though I knew I'd have nightmares for the next few days, I tuned in anyway. Kolchak's exploits were the gateway drug to a lifelong addiction to the macabre. The thought of Pere Malfait or the rakshasa from The Horror in the Heights skulking around in the dead of night still gives me a rush and the willies. Farewell, Mr. McGavin, and thanks for leaving me with a compulsion to keep holy water handy at all times.

By: Fortyseven

Fortyseven — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 08:49:43 -0800

My first exposure to him was in the movie Hangar 18 when I was a kid. Interestingly, I just picked it up on DVD a couple weeks ago. I loved the parts directly involving the alien technology and history, but the rest didn't hold up as well as I'd remembered. Him being in the movie, however, brought the whole affair up a notch. Then, of course, ended up enjoying him in Kolchak, Christmas Story, etc. He just had a very special presence and character that just made whatever he did enjoyable.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 09:14:00 -0800

He was an unabashedly hammy actor, and I loved that. By the way, he is hilarious in the almost-never-seen Blood and Concrete, playing a hard-boiled to the point of insanity private dick. The scene where he takes Billy Zane for a drive and then menaces by glaring at him -- endlessly -- while driving, in the meanwhile never looking at the road, is worth the other two hours this film steals from your life.

By: sdrawkcab

sdrawkcab — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 10:32:57 -0800

You used up all the glue on purpose!! .

By: marxchivist

marxchivist — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 10:41:07 -0800

The Night Stalker movie is still scary. It freaked me out as a kid, but I watched it a few years ago as an adult (in the dark) and it is still pretty damn frightening. RIP.

By: jrossi4r

jrossi4r — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 12:34:21 -0800

I can't believe he was actually older than Don Knotts.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 14:54:37 -0800

The Night Stalker scared the crap out of me too as a wee one. I still remember the one where he had to try and kill the zombie by pouring salt in his mouth and then sewing the lips together.

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 15:11:55 -0800

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 16:17:54 -0800

god dammit. goodbye kolchak and mr parker.

By: Man-Thing

Man-Thing — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 16:18:21 -0800

Just a few weeks ago I bought the DVD with The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler. They both hold up pretty well, and are scary enough that I decided not to show them to my kids. McGavin was great. I read someplace that the X-Files wanted to use him as Kolchak on that show, but he had some kind of grudge against Dan Curtis, the Night Stalker's producer, so he refused to do it. Instead he played a retired FBI agent of some sort. I'll always wonder how great an appearance by Carl Kolchak on X-Files would have been. I watched the first episode of the new Night Stalker and remained unimpressed. But they did do some computer trickery in the beginning to have McGavin appear in the background in the newsroom for one scene. I liked that.

By: snsranch

snsranch — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 18:16:07 -0800

Wow. .

By: pmurray63

pmurray63 — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 19:24:35 -0800

By: chococat

chococat — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 19:27:47 -0800

The Night Stalker scared the crap out of me too as a wee one. I still remember the one where he had to try and kill the zombie by pouring salt in his mouth and then sewing the lips together. Yes! Wow, I had that locked away somewhere in my head but it just came flooding back when I read that. I remember watching that with my brother. It's kind of intertwined with memories of watching an episode of The Snoop Sisters with Alice Cooper as a witch...and also Night Gallery with some weird little creature in a woman's apartment, trying to kill her with a knife, and she finally cooked it in her oven. Those all blend into one scary 70's moment, watching TV with my older brother.

By: dbiedny

dbiedny — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 22:02:28 -0800

Kolchak kicked some serious paranormal ass. Creeped the hell out of me as a kid, they don't make TV like that anymore. chococat, that Night Gallery episode might have been one the episodes of the Karen Black classic Trilogy of Terror. And not to go too off topic, but you might also remember "Don't be Afraid of the Dark". RIP Mr. McGavin. Hope you're playing a mean hand of poker with Don Knotts right this moment.

By: lexalexander

lexalexander — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 09:29:16 -0800

The 1972 "Night Stalker" = best made-for-TV movie EVAH. But "A Christmas Story" is only the second-best Christmas movie evah. (No. 1 is "Die Hard.")

By: mctsonic

mctsonic — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 09:37:12 -0800

Just watched a fine Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode with him in it this weekend - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0508360 didn't know he had passed - one last gunsling for ol' Kolchack - I'm bummed now.

By: Hesychia

Hesychia — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 13:53:34 -0800

By: ktoad

ktoad — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 17:56:19 -0800

. [this sucks.]

By: chococat

chococat — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 18:43:07 -0800

chococat, that Night Gallery episode might have been one the episodes of the Karen Black classic Trilogy of Terror. That's exactly what it was. I remember that crazy doll sawing it's way through a Samsonite suitcase or something. Totally freaked me out. And I just remembered the ending where she phones her mother and tells to come over...and then we see she's holding the knife... I could have sworn it was a Night Gallery episode. It says that it was written by Richard Matheson, who was a Twilight Zone/Night Gallery writer, so I was on the right track anyway. And did you notice the Trivia for Trilogy of Terror on the imdb site: Trivia: During the "Julie" segment, a drive-in theater can be seen showing the movie "The Night Stalker". This is an in-joke reference to director Dan Curtis's TV movie The Night Stalker (1972) (TV). Talk about coming full circle. Weird.