MovieChat Forums > Psycho (1960) Discussion > OT: Harry Dean Stanton RIP.

OT: Harry Dean Stanton RIP.

posted 7 years ago by swanstep (2616)
2 replies | jump to latest

Harry Dean Stanton, looking frail, was recently on small screens in David Lynch's Twin Peaks:The Return. His career extended back to '50s TV including one of the most thrilling Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 'Escape to Senoita'. Stanton and Murray Hamilton play sadistic kidnappers of a girl, Burt Reynolds tries to stop them, and Stuart Rosenburg directs. It's ace.

Stanton pops up in minor roles throughout the '70s then, having aged into his slightly craggy looks and retiring manner, was immortalized as the laconic Brett, the second victim in Alien. Numerous good parts followed including leads in Repo Man (one of the hipster sources for Pulp Fiction) and Paris, TX (a near-masterpiece in a decade not overflowing with them). The latter begins with Stanton's Travis walking alone deep in the South-West to an instantly iconic Ry Cooder score:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YMCWR8jzpU
and it ends with what and who he's walking towards - one of the greatest monologues and scenes in movie history (accompanied again at a crucial point by Cooder's guitar):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWetWsvHnyg (the vid. plays on through 3 parts to the end of the film)
The script for all that was written by Sam Shepard who also passed away recently. Shepard passed too young, whereas Stanton, a WW2 vet, had a good innings of 91. And Alien and Paris TX in particular seem likely to last a very long time.

[–] telegonus (727) 7 years ago

Sorry to hear. This sad news is making the rounds. Harry Dean Stanton had a fine career. The ranks of players whose careers go back to the studio age are thinning,--inevitably, of course. Still sad, though.

RIP, Harry Dean Stanton.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

I was amazed that he was 91, and checking his filmography, it is listed at 200 jobs in movies and TV! Goes back through TV shows like Checkmate and Have Gun Will Travel, and then further back into the 50's.

Alien and his most famous role seem to have hit about 25 years into his career!

Harry Dean Stanton was one of those classic character guys who seemed just this side of banal -- not much to look at, a laconic nature that almost suggested "dumb" -- and then he fooled us. Great intelligence, depth of feeling, CHARISMA.

swanstep hit the key Harry Dean movies that I know about -- but have never seen (Paris, Texas; Repo Man.) Maybe its about time, for me.

I recall liking him before Alien -- in the 1976 film The Missouri Breaks, with Nicholson and Brando. He plays a member of Nicholson's ragtag outlaw gang, each member of whom Brando's bounty hunter kills off. Harry Dean gets the goriest murder -- a thrown steel spike through the eye -- perhaps in anticipation of Alien.

Harry Dean was a big pal OF Nicholson's.

I liked reading this , btw: When young Tom Cruise was making the sexy "Risky Business" with the sexy young actress Rebecca DeMornay(playing a sexy Chicago hooker), Cruise wanted to make a play for Rebecca in real life -- but learned that her boyfriend was on set and...Harry Dean Stanton! Way to go, Harry. Mr. Cruise played the gentleman and found other young ladies to date. Professional respect.

Anyway, 91 is a good age and it was a great career of great longevity -- living proof that an actor can work almost forever if they do character parts.

RIP Harry Dean Stanton

PS. What's that line in Alien where Harry Dean says something and ends the with the phrase "--erino." Rhymes with "Steve-erino." I always like that line, can't remember it now.