I do say this with nothing but love, respect, and a whole lot of admiration: I really hope you young pups do appreciate those acting giants you meet along the way -- even if only on the silver screen -- while they're with us.
See, I know I'm not as young as many who read from this space, and that's perfectly acceptable. I think a blog -- a good one -- really needs to speak to many folks and not just people of a certain age. But because I'm a bit 'long in the tooth' as they say, I'll occasionally try to impart of bit of good-natured wisdom I've amassed on my own journey ... and it's growing harder and harder. The older you get, the more you have to kinda/sorta sit on the sidelines and watch those who've brought great joy to the various works in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror as they slip away -- gracefully or not -- into the Great Beyond.
Because so many of you are like me, I'm sure you've got one of those flicks in your library that may be from your youth or from some other seminal period in your life that you've watched so many times -- even in bits and pieces -- over and over and over again. Back in my earlier days -- when we didn't have home video and could only rely on pay cable for some unedited joys to play in repeat engagements -- one of the very first films I devoured over and over and over again was Nicholas Meyer's fantastic 1979 Time After Time. Honestly, the thing played damn near endlessly on HBO (then known more as Home Box Office than anything else), often times playing multipe times on the same day. And, yes, I can't even begin to imagine how many times I sat through it.
For those of you who don't know it, it's a fairly straight forward Science Fiction and Fantasy Romance. Meyer tweaked a story idea originally credited to Karl Alexander and Steve Hayes that saw novelist and forward-thinking H.G. Wells using the time machine he created to chase Jack The Ripper into (then) modern day California. The great Malcolm McDowell played Wells, the always lovely Mary Steenburgen played his love interest 'Amy Robbins,' and nobody other than the perfect David Warner could bring the duplicitous cunning that was Jack to life as he did in the flick.
As we fans tend to do, I watched for anything that was casting this brilliant actor in a role; and, thankfully, his work made such a huge impression he gravitated to many great projects over the years. Time Bandits (1981) remains a delight to this day, much of its comic genius owed to Warner's incredible performance as the evil genius. In 1982, he took on an even larger role in cinematic villainy as the 'Master Control Program' in Walt Disney's TRON. 1983 saw him prove he was capable of delivering some laughs as well when he joined Steve Martin in The Man With Two Brains. 1989 saw him enter the world of Star Trek with a role in the oft-maligned Star Trek V: The Final Frontier for Paramount Pictures; and he even returned (in a different role) in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).
Seriously ... there is so much, much more that the man has done in the world of genre entertainment. He leaves behind a resume rich in over two hundred different screen roles; and I've no doubt that many of them are well worth the time to appreciate a true talent who always seemed like he was at the top of his game.
Prayers are extended to the family and friends of Mr. Warner. May he forever rest in peace.
-- EZ
See, I know I'm not as young as many who read from this space, and that's perfectly acceptable. I think a blog -- a good one -- really needs to speak to many folks and not just people of a certain age. But because I'm a bit 'long in the tooth' as they say, I'll occasionally try to impart of bit of good-natured wisdom I've amassed on my own journey ... and it's growing harder and harder. The older you get, the more you have to kinda/sorta sit on the sidelines and watch those who've brought great joy to the various works in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror as they slip away -- gracefully or not -- into the Great Beyond.
Because so many of you are like me, I'm sure you've got one of those flicks in your library that may be from your youth or from some other seminal period in your life that you've watched so many times -- even in bits and pieces -- over and over and over again. Back in my earlier days -- when we didn't have home video and could only rely on pay cable for some unedited joys to play in repeat engagements -- one of the very first films I devoured over and over and over again was Nicholas Meyer's fantastic 1979 Time After Time. Honestly, the thing played damn near endlessly on HBO (then known more as Home Box Office than anything else), often times playing multipe times on the same day. And, yes, I can't even begin to imagine how many times I sat through it.
For those of you who don't know it, it's a fairly straight forward Science Fiction and Fantasy Romance. Meyer tweaked a story idea originally credited to Karl Alexander and Steve Hayes that saw novelist and forward-thinking H.G. Wells using the time machine he created to chase Jack The Ripper into (then) modern day California. The great Malcolm McDowell played Wells, the always lovely Mary Steenburgen played his love interest 'Amy Robbins,' and nobody other than the perfect David Warner could bring the duplicitous cunning that was Jack to life as he did in the flick.
As we fans tend to do, I watched for anything that was casting this brilliant actor in a role; and, thankfully, his work made such a huge impression he gravitated to many great projects over the years. Time Bandits (1981) remains a delight to this day, much of its comic genius owed to Warner's incredible performance as the evil genius. In 1982, he took on an even larger role in cinematic villainy as the 'Master Control Program' in Walt Disney's TRON. 1983 saw him prove he was capable of delivering some laughs as well when he joined Steve Martin in The Man With Two Brains. 1989 saw him enter the world of Star Trek with a role in the oft-maligned Star Trek V: The Final Frontier for Paramount Pictures; and he even returned (in a different role) in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).
Seriously ... there is so much, much more that the man has done in the world of genre entertainment. He leaves behind a resume rich in over two hundred different screen roles; and I've no doubt that many of them are well worth the time to appreciate a true talent who always seemed like he was at the top of his game.
Prayers are extended to the family and friends of Mr. Warner. May he forever rest in peace.
-- EZ
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