The two guys discussing notifying the crew's family...
who is the younger guy? I recognize him, but can't come up with his name and I didn't catch the character's name. I think it will be a "duh" moment when someone tells me who it is.
shareThat was William Schallert, who - among his very extensive list of credits - is probably best remembered as Patty's father Martin Lane on "The Patty Duke Show."
No "duh" required; he's one of those people seen so often over so many years that it becomes difficult to remember where you know them from. Happens to me all the time.
Poe! You are...avenged!
Oh, somehow I doubt it happens to you much at all, my good friend!
Bill S. is one of only a couple of actors in this film still alive, 61 years on. (Movies, like race horses, age a year on January 1!) Sadly and terribly, I read that he has had both legs amputated for some condition. I asked about this on his board and got a couple of very helpful replies before some...what shall I call him -- ah, yes: jerk -- inserted a nasty, insulting question about why was I so lazy not to look up the disease myself. Started to reply but for once restrained myself and left it.
I seem to be attracting a greater than usual portion of such souls of late...in addition to some diametrically opposite ones.
I'm not as good with faces as I used to be. For a neutral-appearing sort of fellow, Schallert has a rather distinctive voice, and I find it's as much for that as from visualizing him in a given scene that I can recall him from films like THATM, Pillow Talk or others, and he's recognizable even when you don't get a good look at his face.
I hadn't heard that about his health problems, and am sorry to. Especially tough when it involves someone who appears to have remained professionally active for so long.
I tend not to engage the provocateurs, except maybe for the occasional, "Havin' a bad day?"
Although there was this one years ago who finished a vitriolic post with, "You're a double asshat, with fries," and I couldn't resist replying, "No, I'm the club sandwich with a side of cole slaw...and make it snappy, will ya?"
Poe! You are...avenged!
Leave it to you, D-6...making a nasty remark about cole slaw!
Funny that sometimes in the 50s WS looked very young, and other times much older than his years. Pillow Talk is, I think, an example of the latter.
I nearly fell over years ago when I spotted him in a three-line bit in Mighty Joe Young! (It takes little to make me fall over.) He was the very young-looking gas station attendant who was putting air in the tire of the van they were hiding Joe in (before the old tramp panicked when he opened the rear door and saw a ten-foot gorilla sitting inside), and subsequently told the cops, "Hey, there's somethin' funny about that outfit!"
Then again, in his large role in one of my favorite films, The Man From Planet X, he looked a bit older than his 28 years -- more like 38-40. His co-star in that film, Robert Clarke, wrote that he "is as fine an actor as I can name." A very versatile gentleman is William Schallert. He even ages according to the part!
I'd never mean to say anything nasty about Cole Slaw; I know both he and his brother Murphy very well.
I remember WS from Mighty Joe Young, and just yesterday, I think it was, I spotted Dabbs Greer, another reliable and versatile character actor of the same period, in a similar bit as a gas jockey in Invasion Of the Body Snatchers, which I'm not sure I'd ever noticed before. His face is only barely glimpsed, but his is another of those distinctive voices.
And, as coincidence would have it, both Greer and Schallert have played ministers on The Dick Van Dyke Show (well, Greer plays the army chaplain who marries Rob and Laura).
Poe! You are...avenged!
I never met Murphy, but I knew younger brother Burke pretty well. Very dapper chap. One of his greatest Rolls.
When I was in Georgetown many moons ago one of my friends also loved spotting these character actors and for some reason the one he and I both got the biggest laugh from simply saying his name was Dabbs Greer. I think Dabbs's first role ever -- or one of his first -- was as the guy who was clinging onto the rope dangling from a blimp, slipped, and was rescued at the last moment by "this super guy" who flew out to save him -- in the very first episode of Adventures of Superman.
I get a kick out of the fact that in his last role he played the old Tom Hanks (in The Green Mile.
Sam Peckinpah also acts a small part in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
In The High and the Mighty, the first speaking role in this film was uttered by George Chandler, always a welcome sight. Some directors have actors who they always cast in small parts in their films for luck. Frank Capra used Charles Lane, for example. William A. Wellman used George Chandler, sticking him in as many of his movies as he could. Didn't always work for the box office, but I like nice gestures like that.
Bill Schallert didn't seem to have any such patron but he certainly appeared in enough roles to sink a battleship. Speaking of which, he did help shoot down Yamamoto in The Gallant Hours. I guess his career had to have one plane that didn't make it.
And leave it to you to out-pun me again (with a two-fer yet). Loved that show and its weekly parade of guest-star suspects.
Greer has always been one of those character actors I've most admired. He was equally adept at portraying cops and con men, the malevolent or mild-mannered and with comedy or drama. A couple years after The Green Mile, he made two very effective appearances on Diagnosis Murder as the dementia-ridden former partner of Van Dyke's late father.
When I was in Post Production at Lorimar, I worked with two of Chandler's sons, Bodie (as nice a guy as anyone could meet) and Gary (who, unlike Bodie, was practically a dead ringer for his father, and with whom I didn't get along at all). Heard papa George dropped by the office one day, but I didn't meet him.
Caught your update on Schallert downthread; I guess deleted bad news is good news (and perhaps the 21st century version of being gaslighted is Wikied).
Poe! You are...avenged!
Hi hobnob. Was that amputation story from a reputable source? I've not seen nor heard anything about that anywhere. I'd think it would be mentioned on his website, Wikipedia, imdb.com, etc., if it were true. And he has guest-starring credits as recently as last March.
Btw, I also liked him as Admiral Hargrade on Get Smart.
It is better to be kind than to be clever or good looking. -- Derek
You know, I feel like I'm being gaslighted, pt. I read it in his Wikipedia entry a couple of months ago. Before answering your question I went back to re-read it and found no mention of it whatsoever! I also noted that the page had been edited on this date (1/17/15). I don't know when this information was removed but I'm not that crazy -- it really was there. I couldn't have imagined a disease or condition I never heard of.
The only line now in the Wiki article that's even remotely suggestive of any physical issue was this: "During Schallert's tenure as SAG President, he founded the Committee for Performers with Disabilities." Of course, this doesn't mean Schallert himself suffers from any disability, though it might be a slightly curious coincidence that he initiated this committee.
So I can only assume this was indeed misinformation that has been rectified. If so, I couldn't be happier. But how bizarre!