Actor Roy Scheider has passed away at the age of 75.
He was of that rare breed of "regular guy" working actors (see also James Caan) that helped make 70's cinema the wonderfully unique beast that it was. Over the course of his film career, Scheider tangled with Marseillais drug smugglers, two killer sharks, a fugitive Nazi dentist, an alien monolith, and the introduction of hack sci-fi elements and the DeLuise brothers into the seaQuest DSV universe -- only to succumb to complications related to his recent struggle with myeloma.
It's a damn shame, really. You'd think that having survived a Jeannot Szwarc film and the machinations of Universal (by itself and with its tag team partner, NBC) executives, cancer of the blood plasma would have been small potatoes.
Adios, Roy. As the wife put it, "The Mayor of Shark City is dead? Summer is over."
Roy Scheider & Ben Vereen - Bye Bye Love (from the All That Jazz OST, 1979) - The coda to Bob Fosse's 1979 semi-autobiographical musical, which netted Scheider (in the role Fosse's fictionalized avatar) an Oscar for Best Actor. Using the song that launched the Everly Brothers as a springboard, the piece weaves together the complementary strains of self-indulgent excess associated with both the musical genre and the Me Decade. Clocking in at just under ten bombastic minutes, the track falls well outside the boundaries of casual listening material, but it serves as an excellent reminder (if you lived through the era) or perfect illustration (if you came of age afterward) of what set the 1970's apart from any decade before or since.
Arthur B. Rubinstein - Main Title/Crook Dusting (from the Blue Thunder OST, 1983) - I'd make a witty comment about how the paranoia-laden militarization of law enforcement theme of this 1983 Scheider/assault helicopter buddy flick seems oddly prescient, given the path American society has taken in the past quarter-century, but I'm too busy massaging my temples and trying to get my jaws to unclench.
Monday, February 11, 2008
go tell Chief Brody
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comments:
When I saw Jaws in 1977. It was the first cinema trip I made on my own, and after one viewing, became obsessed with Jaws and saw it 5 times during that summer. One of the reasons I became so gripped was the combination and quality of three lead actors, all of who deliver a theatrical performances (in an intimate sense)rather than an overblown cinematic performances. I find it hard to imagine that many contemporary film actors Cruise, Crowe or whoever would invest the same emphasis on the role rather than their role.
Post a Comment