Who's Next To Croak?

[wilberfan]

Ivan Reitman

[wilder]

Nick Zedd

https://twitter.com/FilmLinc/status/1497968923232411652

[wilberfan]

Alan Ladd, Jr.

(Star Wars, Braveheart, Once Upon A Time in America, Blade Runner...)

[wilberfan]

William Hurt

[ono]

Gilbert Gottfried

[wilder]

Vangelis

[wilberfan]

Ray Liotta   

[Freddie Dodd]

Philip Baker Hall

 

[Find Your Magali]

So many loving memories of Philip Baker Hall circulating the internet today. I especially love that a whole new generation is discovering Robert Ridgely breaking character and cracking up in the background as PBH delivers the lollipop line in Boogie Nights.

So many PBH threads to mention, but one that really struck me was Zodiac. It's so great for being against type. When PBH shows up in a film, you always think intelligence and competency (whether his character is good or bad). In Zodiac, we're preconditioned to believe him, until the jarring moment we realize he's an incompetent old fool.

[wilberfan]

The American Dream, Period: Philip Baker Hall (1931-2022)

He was in the film "Midnight Run" briefly, had a memorable guest spot on "Seinfeld," and made many more TV movies. He was making one of them when one of the production assistants caught him off guard one day while delivering his coffee. The PA was barely 21 and looked younger. He said with much enthusiasm that "Secret Honor" was his favorite movie. Could they talk about it? How do you say no to that. The kid's name was Paul Thomas Anderson and he had a script and a little money cobbled together from the usual collections of rich relatives and acquaintances. The kid had dropped out of film school to work for TV stations and on film sets. He shot his first real short "Cigarettes and Coffee" starring Hall in 1993. He parlayed that into money to make a feature. One that would star Hall, naturally.

"Hard Eight" was a stunning showcase for everyone in the cast, from co-leads Hall and John C. Reilly who was about to hit the big times like Hall after a few years in the trenches playing sidekicks and silent texture, to supporting players Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hall, Hoffman, and Reilly would appear in Anderson's next two films "Boogie Nights" and "Magnolia" as their stars rose alongside Anderson's quirky Altman-inspired character studies. Hall, Reilly, and Hoffman were like anchors that kept the sprawling narratives routed to the spot, to humanity. In "Hard Eight," Hall's intention remains a mystery until the final act, and his harsh professionalism masks his angelic nature. A scene where Paltrow imagines he's about to coerce her for sex is genuinely suspenseful, because we don't know if his character Sidney is who he tries to make himself out to be. His soulful interiority and avuncular care (his near undoing) for Reilly's big dumb hustler is like the low bass notes that allow the more flamboyant performances to take solos. Hall didn't solo like some actors. He was the whole song.

In "Boogie Nights" Hall has precious little screen time, but he's spectacular as porn producer Floyd Gondolli. He's even more heartbreaking in "Magnolia" as a crooked game show host who's losing his mind, suffering from an onset of an Alzheimer's like disorder from years of hard living. His daughter says he molested her, but he can't remember doing it. Anderson specialized in broken characters and in Hall he had a guy who could project brokenness with the stuttering he perfected playing his apoplectic drunken Nixon, or with the simplicity of a syllable, his voice like the scotch he pounds in "Secret Honor," old and grim and middle shelf, a man who should have become more, a man who projects the air of a king, but has no kingdom to call home.

[wilder]

Jean-Louis Trintignant

[ono]

James Caan

[Alethia]

Just the absolute greatest. What a legend. End of tweet.

[wilder]

Bob Rafelson

[wilder]

Paul Sorvino