R.I.P. Peter Fonda
August 21, 2019 7:08 AM Subscribe
Peter Fonda, the son of Old Hollywood royalty who helped usher in New Hollywood with Easy Rider fifty years ago, died last week at age 79. In those fifty years, he worked mostly on the fringes of Hollywood, though he experienced a notable resurgence in the late 90's with The Limey and Ulee's Gold (for which he was nominated for an Oscar).
. I just said to my wife that I was surprised that there hadn't been an obit thread on him yet and thought about posting one.
posted by octothorpe at 7:26 AM on August 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 7:26 AM on August 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'll always remember him as Burnett Stone, the keeper of Muffle Mountain in Thomas and the Magic Railroad. [Also featuring Alec Baldwin as Mr. Conductor]. Magic dust & coal smoke, indeed.
posted by chavenet at 7:47 AM on August 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 7:47 AM on August 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
How did he have such an amazing and seemingly-care-free life? He learned how to skate when he was a little boy.
RIP.
posted by dobbs at 7:48 AM on August 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
RIP.
posted by dobbs at 7:48 AM on August 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
bro how could you forget his fight with jackie chan in cannonball run
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:50 AM on August 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:50 AM on August 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
The restored print of Peter Fonda's 1971 cowboy movie is a reminder of how good US cinema used to be. I watched this last night. A beautiful slow movie of a kind that's not made anymore.
posted by night_train at 8:08 AM on August 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by night_train at 8:08 AM on August 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
If you've never seen The Limey, you should. Peter Fonda was a great villain in it.
.
posted by Bee'sWing at 8:18 AM on August 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
.
posted by Bee'sWing at 8:18 AM on August 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
.
That's actually a microdot. Lick your screen and go hang out in a cemetery.
posted by loquacious at 8:35 AM on August 21, 2019 [10 favorites]
That's actually a microdot. Lick your screen and go hang out in a cemetery.
posted by loquacious at 8:35 AM on August 21, 2019 [10 favorites]
Remember that time he tripped out with Laura Dern's dad.
Yeah, I'm, I'm hip about time.
.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:14 AM on August 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I'm, I'm hip about time.
.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:14 AM on August 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
.
The memory is of 1970, being ten years old and the kid next door had somehow conned his parents into letting him see Easy Rider and now he had the poster on the wall. He wanted to be the Dennis Hopper guy. I was Fonda all the way.
Fire All Of The Guns At Once
posted by philip-random at 9:23 AM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
The memory is of 1970, being ten years old and the kid next door had somehow conned his parents into letting him see Easy Rider and now he had the poster on the wall. He wanted to be the Dennis Hopper guy. I was Fonda all the way.
Fire All Of The Guns At Once
posted by philip-random at 9:23 AM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
... and then I started growing my hair long.
posted by philip-random at 9:24 AM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by philip-random at 9:24 AM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
Don’t forget Escape from LA (1996) (See pic #9 and #21)
posted by xtian at 9:37 AM on August 21, 2019
posted by xtian at 9:37 AM on August 21, 2019
Easy Rider is one of the few perfect movies.
posted by 256 at 11:30 AM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by 256 at 11:30 AM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
The casting of Fonda and Stamp in The Limey is as close to perfect as you'll ever see.
"Did you ever dream about a place you never really recall being to before? A place that maybe only exists in your imagination? Some place far away, half remembered when you wake up. When you were there, though, you knew the language. You knew your way around. *That* was the sixties... No. It wasn't that either. It was just '66 and early '67. That's all there was."
posted by theory at 11:52 AM on August 21, 2019 [7 favorites]
"Did you ever dream about a place you never really recall being to before? A place that maybe only exists in your imagination? Some place far away, half remembered when you wake up. When you were there, though, you knew the language. You knew your way around. *That* was the sixties... No. It wasn't that either. It was just '66 and early '67. That's all there was."
posted by theory at 11:52 AM on August 21, 2019 [7 favorites]
.
for Peter Fonda
.
for the dreams of the 1960s
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:34 PM on August 21, 2019 [4 favorites]
for Peter Fonda
.
for the dreams of the 1960s
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:34 PM on August 21, 2019 [4 favorites]
I had a song of his (true) in the Boss Radio playlist I created last week after seeing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Not bad for one of those celebrity crossover types of things, and apparently written by one G. Parsons (haven't checked, but I'm guessing Gene not Gram).
posted by saintjoe at 12:53 PM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by saintjoe at 12:53 PM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
There's good song on the soundtrack to "The Trip" called "Fine Jung Thing" with Mike Bloomfield on the guitar.
posted by DJZouke at 12:55 PM on August 21, 2019
posted by DJZouke at 12:55 PM on August 21, 2019
saintjoe: "(haven't checked, but I'm guessing Gene not Gram)."
Nope, it was Gram: "November Night" was written by none other than Gram Parsons, and co-produced by jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela ("Grazing in the Grass," the instrumental version). Parsons, who's Exhibit A if one's trying to prove that "country-rock" isn't a dirty word, knew Fonda from working together on Roger Corman's The Trip, which was written by Nicholson. It was not about backpacking through Europe. Masekela had heard Fonda playing guitar at a party and encouraged him to record some music, so off they went to make an album's worth of songs. [Source]
posted by chavenet at 1:18 PM on August 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
Nope, it was Gram: "November Night" was written by none other than Gram Parsons, and co-produced by jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela ("Grazing in the Grass," the instrumental version). Parsons, who's Exhibit A if one's trying to prove that "country-rock" isn't a dirty word, knew Fonda from working together on Roger Corman's The Trip, which was written by Nicholson. It was not about backpacking through Europe. Masekela had heard Fonda playing guitar at a party and encouraged him to record some music, so off they went to make an album's worth of songs. [Source]
posted by chavenet at 1:18 PM on August 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
Randomly, my husband and I watched Easy Rider just a few days before Fonda died. So good.
posted by gaspode at 1:25 PM on August 21, 2019
posted by gaspode at 1:25 PM on August 21, 2019
Before Easy Rider, The Wild Angels -- you know, "We want to have a good time...We wanna get loaded" but my favorite sequence is in The Trip when he wanders into some stranger's house and snaps on the TV and starts watching and one of the home's residents, a small child comes downstairs and asks
"Who are you?"
"Just a man"
posted by Rash at 4:48 PM on August 21, 2019
"Who are you?"
"Just a man"
posted by Rash at 4:48 PM on August 21, 2019
Maron just re-released his 2018 PF interview. Besides ER details, he shares some tales about harrowing incidents in his childhood, and the aftereffects - as well as his film career.
posted by Twang at 5:12 PM on August 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Twang at 5:12 PM on August 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
I met Peter a few times early in my career and late in his. He would always pull up to my office building in a friendly-but-unnerving garish Euro sportscar (a different one each visit), would greet anyone and everyone effusively, and would digress as far as possible from whatever questions were asked, from “would you like more water” to “what should everyone know about your friend Warren?”
During his visits, he was always drunk as a skunk and should not have been walking, let alone driving.
I will second the assertion above that The Hired Hand is an excellent film, but probably not a great one, as I have no drive to retour its emotional journey or study its technique. I’d rather watch schlock like Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry or Race With the Devil.
posted by infinitewindow at 8:00 AM on August 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
During his visits, he was always drunk as a skunk and should not have been walking, let alone driving.
I will second the assertion above that The Hired Hand is an excellent film, but probably not a great one, as I have no drive to retour its emotional journey or study its technique. I’d rather watch schlock like Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry or Race With the Devil.
posted by infinitewindow at 8:00 AM on August 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
.
posted by Token Meme at 11:31 AM on August 22, 2019
posted by Token Meme at 11:31 AM on August 22, 2019
« Older Matrix: Resurrection | Trails of Wind: The architecture of airport... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by entropicamericana at 7:20 AM on August 21, 2019 [6 favorites]