Adopt An Actor

Splotchy came up with a fun innovation recently-- "Adopt-An-Actor." It consists, mainly, of choosing a character actor to sponsor. The details aren't clear-- I'm not sure yet if you're supposed to let him or her crash on your couch when they're in town.

My first inclination was go grab Brad Dourif, who's played mostly troubled, and often creepy characters since his portrayal of Billy in the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (which I saw, by the way, Splotchy, in the Lagrange Theater in 1975 or 1976!). He's played memorable roles in the awful David Lynch version of Dune, and in Star Trek: Voyager and The X-Files. He's best-known recently for his recurring role in Deadwood.

Last night, though, I was watching one of my favorite movies, Raising Arizona. I'll post this one soon as a "Fave Rave" soon, so I won't go much into it, but IMHO this movie is a masterpiece.

I was also reminded that one of the great character actors of all time, Trey Wilson was in it. As Nathan Arizona, the father of the kidnapped baby, he steals a lot of scenes. A couple of examples:

As the FBI and Arizona State Police overrun his house looking for clues, he yells at them for searching for his son Nathan, Jr. in the only house in Arizona that they know his son isn't at. When the investigators ask him if his son was wearing pajamas, he snaps back, "No one sleeps naked in this house.

He played a couple more memorable roles: as FBI field director Franklin in Jonathan Demme's "Married to the Mob," and, very memorably, as coach Joe Riggins in Bull Durham.

I searched Youtube in vain for the great "Lolligagging" locker room scene (with the great comic actor Robert Wuhl). I couldn't even find a picture of him.

Unfortunately, Wilson died of a cerebral hemmorage in 1989 at the age of 40.

In looking him up, I discovered that he was actually cast in another Coen brothers movie, the gangster movie Miller's Crossing. When he died during filming, the part went to Albert Finney.

I think, then, I'm going to adopt well-travelled character actor M. Emmett Walsh, who was also in Raising Arizona, as the annoying co-worker.

Looking him up on the Internet Movie Database, I discovered that Walsh had 187 entries. The first thing I distinctly remember him in was as the jerk swimming coach in "Ordinary People" ("I would never have let them put electricty in my head..."), but I remembered his face from dozens of movies.

He was in Midnight Cowboy, They Might Be Giants (the movie that the group got the name from, I believe), Serpico, Slapshot, Reds, Blade Runner and many more. According to IMDB, he was the infamous "Group W" Sergeant in the film adaptation of Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant."

It's not like he really needs my sponsorship, though. Among the 187 movies are five that have been or will be released this year. His career appears to be doing just fine without my help.