He told me his gorilla suit had been taken by his landlady in Pensacola, Florida because he could not pay his back rent. She kept his trunk with all his possessions as well. So his movie days were over...
A brief, thoughtful recollection of the last days of the elusive
Emil Van Horn, who, with pioneers like
Charles Gemora,
Ray "Crash" Corrigan,
Steve Calvert,
George Barrows,
Janos Prohaska, and
Bob Burns, established the
golden age of
Hollywood gorilla men.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot
on May 19, 2011 -
7 comments
British actor Pete Postlethwaite
has died at the age of 64, after a lengthy battle with cancer. A renowned veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company (he held the leading roles in both
The Tempest and 2009's
King Lear among others), Postlethwaite is perhaps best known worldwide for his roles in
The Usual Suspects (
trailer),
The Constant Gardener and
The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg supposedly described him as "the best actor in the world", although Postlethwaite himself often
denied this.
posted by fight or flight
on Jan 3, 2011 -
136 comments
Actor, Playwright, Artist, Comedian, Magician, "Man of A Thousand Voices" (including Mighty Mouse,) "Beloved Herring Maven"
Mr. Ira Stadlen (Stage name: "
Captain" Allen Swift) has
passed away at the age of 87. Throughout his career, Mr. Stadler voiced characters in more than 30,000 television and radio commercials, as well as cartoons such as
Underdog,
Tom and Jerry and
Diver Dan, but some might remember him most as the man who saved
Howdy Doody. His nephew
has posted a remembrance on his blog, which includes a link to a "novelty 45" mp3 recording of Swift's
"Are You Lonesome Tonight."
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Apr 28, 2010 -
13 comments
The Tobolowsky Files is a series of podcasts by character actor Stephen Tobolowsky - one of Those Guys, a recognizable face that has popped up in a
multitude of productions but stayed mostly in the background. Following the style of
Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party, where he shares many stories from his experiences, the podcasts bring a fascinating, sometimes humor-filled and sometimes tragic, look on the life of this almost jack-of-all-trades actor. It is hard not to be pulled in as he speaks of the death of his mother, his wild journey through Paris as a young student with his girlfriend, and many other tales from acting jobs to the random people he's encountered throughout his years.
[more inside]
posted by Tequila Mockingbird
on Jan 27, 2010 -
16 comments
On May 26, 1907, a 13 pound baby boy named Marion Morrison was born in
Winterset, Iowa. Nicknamed "Little Duke"
after his childhood dog, he grew up to become the most
famous icon of
American patriotism in the
world. When he was a football player at USC, Western filmstar
Tom Mix got him a summer job at Fox in exchange for game tickets. After two years working as a prop man for $75 a week, his first acting role was in
The Big Trail in 1930. "Marion Morrison" didn't sound like the right name for a trail scout though, so the studio took the last name from a Revolutionary War
general and replaced "Anthony" with "John."
Voila! A working actor from 1930 through the 1970s, this year John Wayne placed
third among America's favorite film stars, the only deceased star on the list and the only one who has appeared every year. He was an
opinionated patriot who, surprisingly, called himself
a liberal... bigger than life, the consummate
cowboy star, and the ultimate symbol of
heroic action and the
Code of the West. In the end, acting actually took his life indirectly thanks to
radiation poisoning during a
movie shoot in Utah (of the 220 persons on set, 91 had contracted cancer by the early 1980s), and almost three decades after his death, his
family continues to carry on his
legacy. He has an
an airport, an
elementary school, and various
Cancer Foundations named after him, and while he wasn't much of a
singer or
dancer, he remains the ultimate symbol of
American manliness to this day. Apparently there are
hundreds of reasons to love the guy.
And for the record... no,
he wasn't gay.
posted by miss lynnster
on May 27, 2007 -
73 comments
Good Day Mr. Kubrick! In 1984 Stanley Kubrick placed an ad in Variety requesting audition tapes from unknown actors for his next movie, "Full Metal Jacket." This is allegedly one of those tapes.
posted by KevinSkomsvold
on Oct 26, 2006 -
57 comments
There was a time when his scowling, oversized visage, his battered black fedora, and his long black coat, were as familiar to horror fans as such characters as Frankenstein and Dracula. This character, who appeared in three films, was called
"The Brute Man" or "The Creeper."
Only that terrifying face wasn't a mask or a creation of makeup. It was an actual face, a product of a condition called
agromegaly. And The Creeper never planned to be an actor at all, he was simply decorated war veteran-turned-
Tampa reporter who had shown up one day to cover a film. The movie's director noticed him and recommended he move to Hollywood and pursue a career as a character actor.
He was
Rondo Hatton.
posted by Astro Zombie
on Mar 5, 2006 -
18 comments
RIP Vincent Schiavelli , a character actor who appeared in
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,
Buckaroo Banzai,
Amadeus,
Death to Smoochie and a ton of other films. A cult favorite, he was one of those actors you looked at and thought, "who
is that guy?".
posted by dbiedny
on Dec 26, 2005 -
81 comments
Losing Gilligan and
Maxwell Smart just a few weeks apart is sad. What great memories of a very funny show and a funny man.
posted by terrier319
on Sep 26, 2005 -
66 comments
