Posts filed under 'Deaths'
April 6th, 2008
When I posted that picture of Charlton Heston from SOYLENT GREEN a few days ago, I never would’ve thought I’d be writing about his death today. Heston was one of those actors who, love him or hate him, seemed like he’d be around forever. Even though he had Alzheimer’s and hadn’t appeared in a movie in half a decade, his death still doesn’t seem quite right.
I mean, if the total breakdown of society – in triplicate! — couldn’t bring him down, what could?
I realize Heston is best known for playing Moses in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, and that he won his Best Actor Oscar for BEN HUR, but I’ve always liked him best in what I call his World Gone Wrong Trilogy: SOYLENT GREEN, THE OMEGA MAN and PLANET OF THE APES. In each movie, Heston played the last real man in a world gone mad, either thanks to overcrowding, a disastrous pandemic or highly evolved apes. Whatever the calamity, Heston faced it the only way he knew how: Fists and jaw clenched tightly, bravely (and sometimes recklessly) facing the enemy.
Oscar or not, Heston wasn’t exactly the greatest actor in the history of cinema — but he was a heck of a screen presence. His politics aside (and with Heston, the politics were part of the package), I always enjoyed watching him onscreen. Even when things had collapsed around him, he seemed to be enjoying himself on some level, and in all three movies in the World Gone Wrong Trilogy, he brings a sly sense of humor to the role, no matter how humorless it might have been written. The glee with which his detective loots a rich guy’s apartment in SOYLENT GREEN brings added dimension to a character that, in the script, barely had one.
And, let’s give the guy credit for one more thing: Back in 1958, when he was a major movie star (having played Moses two years earlier), he was cast as the hero in TOUCH OF EVIL. He asked who was going to direct, and the producers said they didn’t know yet, but Orson Welles was playing the villain. Heston, an obvious master of understatement, Â said “You know, Orson Welles is a pretty good director.” So they hired Welles to direct and TOUCH OF EVIL turned out to be one of his masterpieces. And Heston was delighted to work with him, seeing a genius in Welles that the rest of Hollywood had ignored for years.
Now that, my friends, is a movie star.
March 27th, 2008
We lost one of the greats this week: Actor Richard Widmark died at the age of 93 Monday at his home in Connecticut. The Minnesota native made more than 70 films in his long career, but his most memorable performance might’ve been in his debut, 1947’s KISS OF DEATH. Widmark (already 33 at the time) played killer Tommy Udo, and his maniacal giggling — most memorably used when he pushed an old woman in a wheelchair down a flight of chairs — turned Udo into a classic screen villain and Widmark into a star. (He also earned an Oscar nomination for the performance.)
Here, in case you’ve never seen it, is the scene:
Â
Widmark starred in other classics, too, including the film noir gem NIGHT AND THE CITY. One of my favorite Widmark performances was in 1961’s JUDGMENT AT NUREMBURG, where he played the prosecutor of Nazi judges in a military tribunal. Maximilian Schell, as the defense attorney, has the most interesting role, but Widmark practically steals the film with the sheer intensity and anger of his performance.  Â
February 11th, 2008
Roy Scheider (left) and Gene Hackman in a rare quiet scene from “The French Connection.”
Take a moment today to remember actor Roy Scheider, who died Sunday at the age of 1975. According to the New York Times obit, Scheider had suffered from multiple myeloma for several years and died of complications from a staph infection.
Scheider’s best known for JAWS, of course, where he played Martin Brody, a cop who hated the water but had to battle a great white shark. But I always liked him best in his other 1970s cop role, Det. Buddy Russo in THE FRENCH CONNECTION. His co-star Gene Hackman gets all the attention in that movie (and don’t get me wrong, he’s very good as loose cannon cop Popeye Doyle), but Scheider is the guy who grounds the story, bringing Doyle’s over-the-top methods down to Earth. It’s the best illustration I’ve ever seen of the old “good cop, bad cop” cliche.
Scheider earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for FRENCH CONNECTION, and he nabbed a Best Actor nod for playing a fictionalized version of Bob Fosse in ALL THAT JAZZ. Here, Scheider was the center of attraction in a movie that only occasionally remembered reality, but he still manages to connect with the audience, giving a crazy, over-the-top movie a much-needed human element.
One of my favorite Scheider performances is also one of his strangest. He plays the notorious Dr. Benway in David Cronenberg’s 1991 movie NAKED LUNCH, based on William Burrough’s infamously non-filmable novel. I’m not sure if Cronenberg succeeds or not, but after a whole lot of strangeness, Scheider’s appearance is both startling and funny. In other words, it’s just what the doctor ordered.
January 22nd, 2008
Sad, shocking news: Actor Heath Ledger, who was nominated for “Brokeback Mountain” two years ago, was found dead in a New York apartment this afternoon. Apparently, he was in full cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived, and early reports (from the not-always-reliable Fox News) said pills were found at the scene. Not many other details yet, but this link at Cinematical should be updated with information as it comes in.
Ledger had starred in some big movies — “Brokeback,” “The Patriot” and “10 Things I Hate About You” — but this summer he was going to star in his biggest yet, the sequel to “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight.” And, as the Joker, Ledger was going to have a major, major role. No word on what this means for the movie, but I’d guess most (if not all) of his scenes are filmed and in the can. The question then, isn’t how they make the movie without Ledger, it’s how they promote it. The death of a young actor is a tragic thing, and doesn’t exactly fit into the marketing plans for a big-budget super-hero summer blockbuster.
Ledger leaves behind a daughter, Matilda, he had with his former fiancee (and “Brokeback” co-star), Michelle Williams.
