Apologies, folks, as I'm just getting around to a few remarks on the passing of actor Bo Hopkins. Honestly, I'm just seeing the announcement this morning -- it landed on my desk via an email newsletter, and I hadn't seen mention in the mainstream press at all -- so I wanted to pass it along for readers.
Life is funny, no? I had just recently been thinking about the man as per my review for Tentacles (1977), a relatively recent release from Kino Lorber. While I'll concede he did good work in the flick, I honestly felt he was also a bit miscast: he just didn't quite seem the part of the somewhat vengeful marine biologist, but -- to be blunt -- the script wasn't all that great. The film was basically a Jaws knock-off intending to capitalize on that picture's popularity; the subpar effects and a handful of bland performances by a still impressive roster of talent just make the experience more forgettable than anything else.
A quick glance at Hopkins' IMDB.com profiles doesn't show an awful lot of genre work. It seems to me that the man -- more often than not -- was cast as a bit of a heavy, maybe not a leading villain but probably still a figure requiring a bit of malice in his bones.
Though he made his professional debut in 1966, it wasn't until the next year -- in an episode of the popular serial The Wild Wild West -- that he stepped into genre. He followed that up with what looks to be a lot of conventional Westerns for a variety of studios. 1977 brought the aforementioned Tentacles; and, in 1979, he enjoyed a guest appearance to the short-lived SciFi-lite series Supertrain. Then it wouldn't be all the way until 1998's Phantoms that he dipped back into Science Fiction and Fantasy, following that up the very next year with a role in From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money.
As I often say, none of us lasts forever, but I'm forever thankful that we have the work these artisans and craftsmen leave behind for us to continue studying their time in this plane of existence.
Thoughts and prayers are extended to the family and friends of Mr. Hopkins.
-- EZ
Life is funny, no? I had just recently been thinking about the man as per my review for Tentacles (1977), a relatively recent release from Kino Lorber. While I'll concede he did good work in the flick, I honestly felt he was also a bit miscast: he just didn't quite seem the part of the somewhat vengeful marine biologist, but -- to be blunt -- the script wasn't all that great. The film was basically a Jaws knock-off intending to capitalize on that picture's popularity; the subpar effects and a handful of bland performances by a still impressive roster of talent just make the experience more forgettable than anything else.
A quick glance at Hopkins' IMDB.com profiles doesn't show an awful lot of genre work. It seems to me that the man -- more often than not -- was cast as a bit of a heavy, maybe not a leading villain but probably still a figure requiring a bit of malice in his bones.
Though he made his professional debut in 1966, it wasn't until the next year -- in an episode of the popular serial The Wild Wild West -- that he stepped into genre. He followed that up with what looks to be a lot of conventional Westerns for a variety of studios. 1977 brought the aforementioned Tentacles; and, in 1979, he enjoyed a guest appearance to the short-lived SciFi-lite series Supertrain. Then it wouldn't be all the way until 1998's Phantoms that he dipped back into Science Fiction and Fantasy, following that up the very next year with a role in From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money.
As I often say, none of us lasts forever, but I'm forever thankful that we have the work these artisans and craftsmen leave behind for us to continue studying their time in this plane of existence.
Thoughts and prayers are extended to the family and friends of Mr. Hopkins.
-- EZ
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