The cinematic stars, in front of and behind the camera, that I grew up with will soon be dead and not freakishly so, like John Belushi, in which the death is a shocking and tragic loss. No, when they die, it won't be surprising. No one will say "they were too young to die." They will be in their seventies, eighties and nineties soon, very soon. Some already are. No one is very shocked when someone in their seventies, eighties or nineties dies.
In the last couple of years, I've already lost Peter Falk, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and a host of other actors that were the big stars of my youth. The thing is, when a star dies, I often have little to say, not because I didn't care for them but because I didn't feel personally connected to them. With Peter Falk, I did and it took me a few weeks to come up with a proper remembrance of him on this blog. Charles "Bud" Tingwell and Edward Woodward felt the same way. And I know others will feel more so.
Woody Allen, for instance. If you don't like him, now's not the time to tell me because I'm here to simply say he means a lot to me. So I'm not looking for a debate on merits or whether you agree on this movie or that, I'm saying his films, particularly ones like Manhattan, Stardust Memories, Hannah and Her Sisters, Broadway Danny Rose and Crimes and Misdemeanors are very powerful emotional experiences for me and when he goes it won't be the same as any other. It will be a seismic shock to my sensibilities.
Robert De Niro will feel the same. He's not quite seventy yet so I feel secure that he will be around a while longer but still, when he goes, a generous piece of my acting soul will go with him.
And I bring all of this up because I think, "Maybe I should start writing obituaries now, so I'm prepared when they go." Or maybe that's a dumb idea. Maybe I should just let it happen as it happens.
But, mainly, I think I bring it up because I realize I'm getting older. Aren't we all?
16 comments:
Boy, Greg, I know exactly how you feel.
First of all, watching these actors age is a reminder that we're aging too.
And then, when you start losing cultural icons that you idolized when you were young or whose work was significant to you, that really hits home. For me, the deaths of Robert Altman, Kurt Vonnegut, Blake Edwards and Elizabeth Taylor were the ones that really impacted me. Losing each one of them was like losing a part of my past. It's not the same as losing a loved one, of course, but the impact is definitely there.
And, for what it's worth, I will really miss Woody Allen when he goes,too.
I look at actors from the sixties and seventies and expect them, somehow, to still look the same. When I see a photo of Robert Redford, I think, "What happened?!" Then I realize 3 Days of the Condor was made almost 40 years ago! At that point, I usually take a drink.
But, no, seriously, movies from the seventies still feel about 10 to 15 years old to me, not 40. It's a strange feeling, indeed.
I think for me (for the record I didn't show up until the 80's which used to qualify me as a youngn' but not so much anymore), the passing of Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor, while sad, didn't feel so direct since I associate them with an earlier age of cinema (right or wrong). Altman was tough. Once we get to De Niro and Hoffman and Hackman (who's past 80 now), I don't know how I'll react. It seems unfathomable
On a lighter note, just as I was starting to cool on Woody I watched Zelig yesterday and now want to revisit every movie of his I've ever seen and see every one I've not. What a talent!
It's hard to believe Hackman's past 80 now. Harder to believe Unforgiven was twenty years ago next year! That still seems so fresh in the mind. I love Gene Hackman, too. Thanks for bringing him up, I'm going to put him in the post.
And I revisited most of Woody Allen's films in the last couple of years and loved them all over again.
Angela Lansbury is high on this sort of list for me, as is Olivia de Havilland. As someone who has barely grown up (and it's debatable if I can even claim the milestone, as yet) it's amazing how the true stars seem to come back again and again, no matter the age and no matter the number of cable channels.
I first remember hearing about movie stars deaths when I was five years old - Superman (George Reeves) died, and Errol Flynn died the same year around my birthday, and adults talked about it. Yeah, it was 1959, shit...I'm gettin' old.
tdraicer:
My first star death that affected me was Boris Karloff, but there have been many since. But I'm bothered less by the fact that stars are mortal, than that actors I greatly admire (and that everyone knew when I was a kid) are almost unknown among generations younger than myself.
I bet a lot of twenty-somethings would have trouble identifying Gene Hackman (who hasn't made a movie in about 8 years). I always knew there was no immortality in life, but I saw art as a way of achieving it. Now I know even that form of immortality is short-lived.
hard to find a reason to go on myself..All the things I love have gone on and continue to keep-a droppin' off. :o(
I liked it in the late 60s and early 70s when Stars from way before my time were relatively still young and blending in with the hip pop culture..
Angela Lansbury is high on this sort of list for me, as is Olivia de Havilland.
Meredith, it's kind of hard to believe that Olivia de Havilland (and Luis Rainer!!!) is still alive. She was never a star in my cinephile adolescence like the others I mention so it won't feel quite the same. A great loss, though, no doubt.
Vanwall, I remember actors dying, like Steve McQueen, and thinking it was tragic but, hey, he lived a long enough life, right? 50!!! He died at 50!!! And in my youth, that seemed like a long life!!! Oh man, I just slap myself on the forehead now when I think about things like that.
actors I greatly admire (and that everyone knew when I was a kid) are almost unknown among generations younger than myself.
tdraicer, I too thought that there were certain celebrities immune from generational ignorance until I discovered how wrong I was. I've met people twenty, twenty-five years younger than me that have heard of The Beatles but can't (gasp) name them! No lie.
Also, at work two weeks ago, a co-worker (she's 25) got a bad cold and another co-worker in her forties said, "You sound like Kathleen Turner," to which the 25 year old responded, "Who's that?"
I liked it in the late 60s and early 70s when Stars from way before my time were relatively still young and blending in with the hip pop culture.
I wish appreciated them more, now. I often think about how awesome it must have been for the actors on shows like The Love Boat to work with so many stars of the Golden Era. I hope they appreciated how rare that opportunity was.
Even though I was young when they passed, I was quite affected by the deaths of Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner. Especially Brynner with that anti-smoking commercial he filmed and asked them to hold off running until after he died. Haunting.
The first guy that truly affected me in the way you speak was Christopher Reeve. Gone too soon.
I don't even want to think about what will happen when my childhood hero, Bill Shatner, passes. I'm not even kidding. It might seem silly, but for a kid who came home from school to watch STAR TREK every afternoon?
Tony, Star Trek is/was HUGE! Hell, when Shatner and Nimoy die, it will be a big piece of my childhood dying with them. Trust me, you're not alone. When DeForrest Kelly died it wasn't a big media blitz because, as beloved as he was, he wasn't Kirk or Spock. Those two are the big ones. They're the ones that defined Star Trek for millions and still do.
I think about this a lot. Death that is. The death of all the things I love and hold dear. It takes up way too much of my daily thoughts frankly but I appreciated your post, Greg.
I've been deeply saddened by some celebrity deaths throughout my life. A few that really stand out from my childhood/teen years at the moment are Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Steve McQueen, Anthony Perkins, John Belushi, Vincent Price and Orson Welles. I'm sure the media had something to do with it since all of their deaths were widely reported at the time they died so I couldn't escape/ignore them and they're all actors I loved dearly (I knew Welles more as an actor than a filmmaker at that time). But those cases were mild compared to what went on in my mind & heart when Elvis Presley, Yul Brenner and John Lennon died.
I was huge Elvis fan growing up and treasured my dad's Elvis records (he had been a huge fan and passed his appreciation on to me). I had a Elvis scrapbook and my grandmother was planning on taking me to see Elvis perform in Vegas or visit Graceland right before he died so I felt utterly crushed when I heard the news. According to my mother I got deeply depressed & withdrawn. I think I was suffering shock and flashing back to my dad's death or something. Anyway, Elvis' death destroyed me for awhile.
Following that John Lennon's murder really touched me. Double Fantasy was one of the 1st records I can remember buying and it was released just 3 weeks before Lennon died but even worse than that was my mother's reaction to his death. I can remember talking to her in the kitchen and she casually turned on the TV while broascasters were announcing his murder and she literally walked towards the TV and collapassed to her knees. I ran to her and asked if she was okay and she just started quietly crying. It was really upsetting. I had no way to comfort her. And I can remember going to school (jr, high) and the whole school was in mourning. During lunch break they held a moment of silence and played Double Fantasy on repeat. It was all so sad.
And last but not least, like Tony above I was deeply touched by Yul Brenner's death. Those TV commercials that Tony mentioned were just heartbreaking. I'd also had the chance to see him perform in THE KING AND I live on stage in 1982 which was amazing because his health hadn't started failing him yet. As a kid this experience made me feel really close to him. And then a few years later he was gone.
Later on Klaus Kinski's death affected me a lot, which I've written about so I won't bore you because my response has become EPIC already.
I will say that most recently Dennis Hooper's death really hit me hard. I couldn't even write about it. Pained me too much to do so.
In the future I know that I'll probably become a complete wreck for a week or two (or more) if I live long enough to see Terence Stamp, Clint Eastwood, Albert Finney, Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren and guys like Dario Argento die just to name a few. And I'm not looking forward to Woody Allen's death either. But I hope you don't start writing early obits like the big newspapers do. I always find those canned things impossible to read. If no one is paying you for it or asking you to do it, just write from your heart. Sometimes the words never come and that's okay too. No one (I hope!) is judging you on what celebrity deaths you decide to blog or not blog about. And if they are... fuck 'em.
Kimberly, I think one of the reasons so many of these affect me is that I'm old enough now to think, "Well, I'm next." I mean, these are the actors I grew up with so they don't feel that much older than me and yet they will soon die of old age. Not a plane crash or a drug overdose or some other unnatural, way-too-young death but just because they're old and their body breaks down. And since they feel like family and friends, it's like a succession of funerals that will one day end with mine.
I read about Steve McQueen recently and found it harder to take in his death now than when it happened. My brother and I went to see Hunter in the theatre and shortly after, he died. That kind of shocked me then but now, when I read about the cancer, caused by asbestos handling in the military and the fact that it was inoperable and that it took him at 50(!), well, I just find it hard to accept. I mean, I'll soon be older than Steve McQueen ever got to be. I can't imagine what it must have been like for Steve to face mortality that young. How sad.
I've thought about that with both John Lennon and Elvis Presley, too, each time I passed their age at death. I still remember the exact places I was when I heard of both of their deaths. With Lennon, I can still remember my mom driving me into school and listening to an interview he gave before he died. I wanted to listen to him talk all morning and not get out of the car but I had to.
And, no, I'm sure I won't write any obits ahead of time. Frankly, I probably wouldn't have time anyway. When it happens, it happens and however long it takes me to compose myself and write it will just be how it is.
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