When I devoted myself wholeheartedly to the television series St. Elsewhere, I didn’t know that the actor who donned Dr. Daniel Auschlander’s white coat brought practically the whole history of Hollywood with him. I just knew the performance was flinty … Continue reading Norman Lloyd, 1914 – 2021
When it comes to the many memorable moments Sean Connery registered on film, I have an odd personal favorite. It is in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables, the film that won Connery an Academy Award, for playing Chicago cop Jimmy … Continue reading Sean Connery, 1930 – 2020
For my eleventh birthday, all I wanted was a Carl Reiner movie. A little more than a year after the release of The Jerk, Reiner’s sixth film as a director and his first of four straight starring Steve Martin, the … Continue reading Carl Reiner, 1922-2020
When I started reading superhero comic books with a fierce devotion, nearly every issue I purchased had the same phrase on the opening page: “STAN LEE PRESENTS.” Stan Lee wasn’t writing many comics by the time I was plunking down … Continue reading Stan Lee, 1922 – 2018
From now on, I don’t want you listenin’ to Guns N’ Roses an’ The Soup Dragons. I want a strict diet of James Brown for the growls, Otis Redding for the moans, Smokey Robinson for the whines, and Aretha for … Continue reading Aretha Franklin, 1942 – 2018
When he was interviewed on British television in 1976, this is how Harlan Ellison was introduced by journalist Mavis Nicholson, after she said, “I will explain to viewers what your publicists have told me about you”: You were born in … Continue reading Harlan Ellison, 1934 – 2018
I occasionally write remembrances of famed individuals after they die, if the performer or writer of figure of some other note held a certain significance for me. Anthony Bourdain qualifies, mightily, and yet I’ve struggled with the idea of alchemizing … Continue reading From the Archive — My Writers: Anthony Bourdain
There’s a moment in the Joel and Ethan Coen’s Barton Fink that I’ve treasured since I first saw it. In the scene, John Mahoney plays W.P. Mayhew, a character seemingly modeled on William Faulkner (though the Coens deny this). Mayhew … Continue reading John Mahoney, 1940 – 2018
For me, Tom Petty’s career was a recurring invitation of rediscovery. The Florida native delivered his first album with the Heartbreakers in 1976, which put him right on the cusp of artists who, in my perception, had simply always been … Continue reading Tom Petty, 1950 – 2017
In describing his approach to acting, Martin Landau once employed a story about a drunk and a sculptor. In Landau’s recounting, the sculptor is putting the finishing touches on a statue of elephant. In order to get the drunk to … Continue reading Martin Landau: 1928 – 2017
