Passages

[tavernier]

I was just wondering why Wikipedia is the only place his death is listed so far.

EDIT: Just saw some "RIP" posts on a Clarke site.

[domino harvey]

dang, who is gonna be number three

[colinr0380]

Arthur C. Clarke.

BBC

[miless]

fuck... that sucks. I always loved to hear his strange voice as he gave the odd interview about 2001 or trees on mars.
I think I may bust out 2001 for a gander tonight.
What a unique guy.

[colinr0380]

I think I may bust out 2001 for a gander tonight.

Or watch this documentary he presented on fractals.

[miless]

Or watch this documentary he presented on fractals.

maybe after dropping a few tabs.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

dang, who is gonna be number three

Ivan Dixon, of Hogan's Heroes?

[domino harvey]

dang, who is gonna be number three

Ivan Dixon, of Hogan's Heroes?

[MichaelB]

Paul Scofield

[foggy eyes]

Paul Scofield

That's very sad news - I hope Robinson has finally found his utopia.

[domino harvey]

Damn, and that is the third

[portnoy]

I was just thinking about Scofield the other day and how great he is in Quiz Show, which is a movie that gives the term 'middlebrow' a really good name.

[Person]

Yes, I was very sad to hear that Paul Scofield had left us. He's brilliant in Frankenheimer's, The Train in a way that no one else could have been - it was an unusual role for him and I can't see how anyone else would have made it as interesting as he did. I love him in A Man for All Seasons. He refused a Knighthood - twice. We'll never see his likes again.

[colinr0380]

Glenn Kenny on Paul Scofield.

[skuhn8]

Easy Rider associate producer Bill Hayward in a trailer home suicide (March 9th in case I'm late with this tidbit).

[tryavna]

Glenn Kenny on Paul Scofield.

Kenny's absolutely right in calling Scofield a "sui generis actor." As Gordon points out, we'll never see his like again.

I didn't get a chance to observe his passing last night, but I recorded Peter Brook's adaptation of Lear off of TCM recently and will be savoring it tonight.

[Person]

I see that he played Otto Frank in a 1988 TV movie called, The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank. That could be interesting. No idea who owns the rights, but Image put out a LD back in 1994.

Glenn Kenny on Paul Scofield.

Kenny's absolutely right in calling Scofield a "sui generis actor."

That's the exact thought that passed through my head soon after I heard of Scofield's passing - that no one could or ever will be able to say, "he is like Paul Scofield". He just did what he had to do and did it with all his being and never disgraced himself; humble with no regrets. As Kierkegaard would say, he lived an "authentic life" and that is a goal rarely attained.

[tryavna]

To continue on with the Scofield love, I did indeed watch Lear last night. It's a movie that deserves it's own thread -- Peter Brook created what has got to be the most challenging, purposely off-putting/distancing (dare I say "Brechtian") Shakespeare film I've ever seen. It was quite a bracing experience, especially since I had watched Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (by contrast, probably the most accessible Shakespeare adaptation ever made) only a few nights before.

Anyway, in his performance, Scofield impressed me anew. He is at once totally controlled in his vocal technique, gestures, and other elements of actorly craftsmanship and yet completely unmannered in his performance. It's astonishing. Scofield may well have reached the absolute pinnacle of the British Shakespearian tradition.

[dadaistnun]

Richard Widmark

[skuhn8]

Richard Widmark

So sad. Is he pretty much the last of noir's leading men? Ok Heston in Touch of Evil and Karl Malden did some good work...but as far as recurring noir leading men Widmark was one of the best and last.

[domino harvey]

Richard Widmark

Fuck.

[Mr Sausage]

And I was just explaining to a class of blank, dead-eyed, uncompreheding faces why Richard Widmark is great (they perked up when I told 'em about the act that made Tommy Udo famous).

I'll lift a glass to Widmark tonight and then watch Pickup on South Street again. Surely one of the weirdest anti-heroes in noir history.

[skuhn8]

And I was just explaining to a class of blank, dead-eyed, uncompreheding faces why Richard Widmark is great (they perked up when I told 'em about the act that made Tommy Udo famous).

I'll lift a glass to Widmark tonight and then watch Pickup on South Street again. Surely one of the weirdest anti-heroes in noir history.

I think this is the key word here for many of his roles: weird. Fair haired with clean features he seemed such an unlikely casting choice for Tommy Udo and some of his other psycho roles.

I don't have Pickup handy but will definitely be raising a glass or three while watching one of his films in a couple hours.

[Antares]

Richard Widmark

Probably the last of the unsung 'great actors' in film history. What I always liked about him was his ability to make very character he played believable without the appearance of 'acting'. There are only a scant few that I put in this class of actor. Takashi Shimura, Thomas Mitchell and Alec Guinness are three that come to mind.

[domino harvey]

He was one of the five or six greatest actors of the studio era, and certainly the greatest still living (til now): capable of playing an underwritten part to the hilt, giving everything a strange twist that showed his genius.