261: The Forgotten Famous

Look, there comes one of them now. My name is George Kosana. I'm with Night of the Living Dead, and I'm listening to Movie Meltdown. They're dead. They're all messed up.

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What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I'm Brian. I'm Lucy. I'm Josh. I'm Jen.

And we are coming to you live via digital recording from Josh's studio. So thank you for letting us come loiter around in your space here. My pleasure. So, this week, we did this last year, and I thought it was kind of interesting. We went through the people that had passed away the previous year.

And the odd thing is we had this planned out, what, a week and a half, two weeks ago? And it was just yesterday when we got into the prep on this that the internet broke because people lost their mind when Philip Seymour Hoffman died. So, I guess that's our intro, is what do you guys... I think more than, I mean, you can't, what do you think about it? Obviously, it's sad.

But, like, the response that people had to it was kind of odd. I don't know. They, like, lost their minds. Like, I've never seen more posts about someone. Like, I will always post when some actor dies.

It's kind of what we do now. And, like, usually it'll be one or two other people in our, like, little movie geek group that I will see also posting stuff about it. But this, like, everybody, like, every post last night was, like, Nothing but some sort of weird comment about Philip Seymour Hoffman. I don't know. Was that just me, or was that odd?

No, and I think it saturated mainstream media, too. I mean, it was all over CNN. I mean, in the hours leading up to the Super Bowl, there was nothing but Philip Seymour Hoffman coverage on CNN, which was amazing. I don't think I fully understood... i don't know i don't know is it because he was a big honking movie star i mean everybody's acting like he was the most famous actor ever but i never really thought of him that way but i guess there's something. Resonant i mean he was always kind of character actory like especially i mean he's i guess had a few leads but i mean pretty much all the time he's sort of brought in as like and look who we got because he's a solid actor but yeah he's not like I mean, he's A-list, but he's A-list character actor.

He's not leading man, usually, and he doesn't get those kind of big movies. If he gets leading man, it's something a little more weird in our house, which usually means mainstream people could care less about. So it is odd, I thought. It's exciting. I feel like I've seen a lot of articles today about character acting as a phenomenon, which is exciting, because that's sort of...

That's my niche. That's my thing, man. I don't think anyone saw it coming because you didn't really hear that he was a drug user and you didn't really hear the stories coming up to it that it might happen and then poof, he's gone. Which probably contributed. Could be too, just the frenzy of the Super Bowl just that everybody was just sitting there waiting for something.

Nothing else to do. Yeah, could be. It is interesting though to see how people tend to project. I don't know if I saw much of that, but you know how people kind of project themselves into when someone dies. Then it frenzies up and everybody's passing stuff around.

I didn't pay attention to too much of it. I did read a few articles that were pretty interesting. It was just so widespread. I was comparing it to the other big one that was sort of unexpected. It was the Heath Ledger thing.

I still feel like that didn't get near the amount of attention that this one did. And my other thought was maybe it's just because that was, what, five, six years or more ago when that happened? I'm like, I guess so many more people are now just Facebook is ingrained in their day-to-day life that maybe it just got more reaction because there's more people and more mainstream people just attached to Facebook all day now. So maybe that's part of it. Maybe because he was so diverse that he pulled in more people.

To be like, oh, my God. That guy from Twister's dead? He died with a needle in him. That's the thing. I mean, there were a few smartasses on our feed that were just like, dude, I loved him in Twister.

I'm like, yes, not his Oscar-winning roles, not his Academy Award-nominated performances. No, he was really awesome in My Boyfriend's Back. Okay, wait, that was just my poll, but I always remembered it from that because what odd miscasting. If you haven't seen it, he's the douchey jock guy that's pushing the kid around. Philip Seymour Hoffman is the jock guy who's pushing our hero around.

Which movie? My Boyfriend's Back. Okay, I was still thinking Twister. No, no. He's just one of the random guys in Twister.

There's many of them. At the time, I guess I didn't know any better, but looking back at it later, I was like, what weird miscasting for the entire rest of his career. Well, isn't that, I haven't actually seen his first role. Oh my gosh, what's going on with my brain right now? This is why I bring the iPad.

The Al Pacino movie. Son of a Woman? Son of a Woman. I haven't seen that movie. I forgot I saw it.

He plays sort of this or. She, that kind of character too. I forgot he was in that too. I kind of remember it now that you say that, but yeah, it's been so long. I still don't.

But now I think I immediately thought of Synecdoche, New York. I think everybody I've talked to has mentioned that one. I think that hits with the other half. It's like Twister or Synecdoche, New York. But also how that's just a narrative of a just sort of a meta breakdown that he had of that character.

That's a brilliant movie. It's hard to get through though. Yeah. A little bit. Well and I think it's weird that I don't know with him that, that he went like hearing the news again, I don't think I'd paid that much attention to his personal life or whatever, but that he'd went on like 26 years of sobriety.

And then last year kind of fell off the wagon and started doing stuff. And I don't know, that just seems really weird that he went that long into his life and into what was, you know, a pretty successful career. And then like, what the hell was it that spiraled him off into this? I don't know. I thought that was strange too.

It's different if you're just one of those people that's every year on again, off again, and you kind of see it coming. But to go 26 years, like that's a huge run for somebody to then like totally go off the rails again. Right. Especially when he seems like the height of stability. I mean, he's got three kids and he's walking them to school every morning and he's got multiple projects happening.

And it's not like he just got famous and had to figure that out. He's already been there doing that. Very weird. It makes me think. But maybe he found out he had cancer.

Yeah. There you go. He forgot to jump off a bridge. Oops. That was the plan we laid out.

It also made me think, man, maybe they shouldn't have written that other guy out of the Hunger Games book. Series that's right i was like now what are they gonna do somebody's furiously rewriting right now. Well that was what was most heartbreaking to me because when i turned on cnn initially it was just like and so what's gonna happen with the hunger games and it was like oh this should. Not be that's what yeah that's what the whole of the country is what are we gonna do we've got two more movies to make so i guess the first strike in the battle that's taking place now they're gonna have to take him out or something like that he's going down yeah your character is in trouble dude but i don't So I mean that, and we also just lost Maximilian Schell?

I don't know. We're not going to touch too much on this, I guess. If we're going by the way we did it last year, we were sort of setting this up as the Oscars do their little memorandum thing, and they usually forget a lot of people that should be in there, or we decided last time there was a lot of politics involved, so I don't know. We were trying to do our own version so we could just talk about the people we wanted to talk about, but they always do it as the set year, not so much like from one recording session to the next. So I guess if we want to stick with that, we'll sort of address some of the more recent people if we want, but we're hitting mostly people who died in 2013.

I don't know. My thing, my, my only other thought on the Philip Seymour Hoffman thing is just cause it keeps happening and we keep seeing this with so many, I guess the only people that get attention are actors and people who are famous, but I'm like specifically with all these performers that, We keep seeing this happening, too. I'm like, can we get one of those cheesy promises? They make you sign a promise not to drink and drive, and you'll call your mom and dad. or they'll promise not to text and drive or a promise not to have sex before marriage or one of those like cheesy promises can we get like a contract going with all performers to be like just sign this and you're not allowed to do drugs because look how it happens I don't know.

You'd think after all of these examples, I don't know. I mean, I know it sets in. It's a mental illness as much as a dependency, but I don't know. It's like we need some sort of system set up to try to get people away from that lifestyle. Yeah, I think actors would just find another self-destructive.

Way to drive fast cars. Yeah. Leading to another gentry. James Dean, when he was doing Giant, that was part of his contract was he wasn't allowed to race cars. And so the day he finished, he went.

Yes. And, but then, yeah, but then died on the way to the car race. So, you know. What about David Carradine? Have they officially said what happened there I don't know how you would do you have a contract for not and Michael Hutchence that's a celebrity thing too I still I think our I think we decided when we talked about it there was foul play there like there was way too much weird.

Stuff was that 2012 really no it was before that it was a while ago okay I'm pretty sure it was a couple years ago but no he I don't know there was a lot of weird stuff going on in and again once you're in another country there's an entire different set of rules So where he was, we decided he could be taken out pretty easily. And he'd kind of piss people off along the way, too. So anyway, we're going back. I'm going to have to go back in the archives. Yeah, go check that story.

Because, yeah, there was a lot of weird stuff going on there. I'm not totally buying that. But anyway. So, 2013. Where do we want to, of the people who have died, died.

Where would we like to begin? Peter O'Toole's one that kind of stuck out. Pretty huge. Do we have any Peter O'Toole memories? I did a little bit of reading on him.

I didn't realize that Lawrence of Arabia was his first major film. That's pretty huge to put on the shoulders of someone. Unless I misread that, but I'm pretty sure that was the case. I just remember him being very orange in it. That happened a lot in the old movies.

Really? You know the desert makes you orange that it does oh wait that's no that's a tanning booth yeah. That's now i mean they didn't necessarily have those back in the day well maybe they did i'm sure there was some like experimental model somewhere where they were like microwaving people and then not telling when they went horribly wrong but. Yeah but have you seen um being there I have. It's been a long time.

I remember it being pretty good, though. Yeah, that's one I want to go revisit now because it's a lot of his. I feel like I haven't seen hardly any of the stuff, and what I have has been a long time ago, so I feel like, yeah, after that, which I guess this is what happens with all of these. Once the person dies, everyone realizes they were the greatest thing ever, and then everybody goes back and rediscovers them. I came up with something called the Tupac syndrome.

Yeah. That's a little different, but I mean... Wait, so Peter O'Toole is going to start putting out more albums now? So he's still alive? Well, he actually, before he died, he played Tupac in his biopic, but...

Anyway, that wasn't funny. So what is the Tupac syndrome? The Tupac syndrome is when someone dies... Well, especially in his case, people sort of rewrite his legacy. Because Tupac was a.

I mean, he was awful. He did some pretty awful things, but after he dies, like, oh, he wrote a song for his mother. Let's, like, you know. That makes you awesome. Well, we.

I don't know. We. Said that with a lot of people. Yeah. We just went over that with the Michael Jackson syndrome.

Oh, gosh. We hate him. We hate him. Oh, my God. He was the greatest thing music ever had known.

He was the king of pop. Yeah. The way we said that. People change their tune, literally. I think for me, personally, I was the hardest hit by Karen Black. just because I worship her.

And because I always thought that she would be a guest for Harry Dean's Dan Fest. I was just like, one of these years we'll get Karen Black for Cisco Pike and that'll be amazing. And we talked to her son Hunter about it and he was like, yeah, she'd totally be on board. And there was sort of this moment when I realized like, oh my goodness, all of these Harry Dean co-stars, we kind of need to get on the ball and get them here and not waste time because it's sort of an aging population. I feel that way on the show.

Like there's so many people I've like, kind of plan to talk to or people have touched base with at one point, but I'm like, oh, we'll have them back and do like a bigger, you know, segment or something. And then like, there's been a few that that's happened to. And it's, it's really sad, I guess, for our own weird, selfish reasons. We're like, I wanted to do something with them. How dare you die?

But what about me? Look how your death has affected me. Again, that's how we kind of operate. I mean, we just in dealing with death in general, it's, you know, the person's gone. It does them no good, but we all take it personally and in our own weird way how we deal with it.

So yeah, I think that's not just celebrity death. I think that's death in general. Yeah, but she was such a, I feel like she's sort of underrated. I mean, she in her prime was such an unbelievably stunning actress. And I think later in life she took some roles which maybe didn't do much for her legacy.

And so people have sort of forgotten how incredibly talented she was. But there's actually a Kentucky tie-in Um, when she'd been at Northwestern, she'd had a child, this all came out. I'm not, this is all public knowledge now, but she'd had a, she'd had a child and, uh, and had given it up for adoption. And I guess the adoption laws in Illinois were such that for decades, she wasn't, there was no way that they could contact each other. And then she got. a post on her fan page on Facebook saying, I was born on this day in Chicago and I think you might be my mom.

And so she connected with her daughter who was living in Owensboro, I think. And this was just last year. So she got to connect with her mom and get to know her before she passed away. But can you imagine? Like you're an adopted kid and You spend decades wondering who your mom is.

It's like, oh, it's an academy-born actress or whatever. Isn't that what every adopted child tells themselves? Yeah, my mom's a movie star. My real mom's a movie star. She's really cool.

She hangs out with Dennis Hopper. You guys are lame. You lame adopted parents. Yeah, I think that's what every adopted child tells themselves secretly. Or angrily yells at their adopted parents.

Yeah, just all the stuff she ended up in. easy rider and five easy pieces in nashville and like all of those like huge 70s like you know monumental movies yeah i. Think five easy pieces is one of my favorite female performances ever i mean all the performances. But i think it's such an that was her huh yeah wow i love that ending yeah it's a great ending. Roper, Williams, and Lee, the deadly three, penetrate the secret chambers of an evil island empire. What do you know about Han?

He lives like a king on that island, totally self-sufficient. A fortress without walls, protected by an invincible army that needs no ordinary weapons. This is Enter the Dragon, the first. Martial arts film produced by a major Hollywood studio. John Saxon is Roper.

He was in it for the money. U.S. Karate champion Jim Kelly as Williams. He was there because he had no choice. Black Belt Hall of Fame undisputed martial arts champion and international film star Bruce Lee.

His job was to get them out alive. I'm hoping you'll join us, represent us in the United States. You want me to join this? Roper, Williams, and Lee. Just when they think they've broken the secret of.

The island, they find there is no escape from the inscrutable Han. Warner Brothers presents Enter the Dragons. where the world's greatest martial arts athletes meet the ultimate challenge with the most ancient and deadly of weapons, the human body. Enter the dragon from Warner Brothers. Well, that's another Kentucky connection because Jim Kelly is from Kentucky. And I forgot about that.

That's like a serious loss. And he like went to play football at UofL. And then he was like, I don't know, this sucks. I'd rather do martial arts. So he came to Lexington and like, what did he start a dojo there?

Did he just train there? I don't know. I don't know. But I mean, he was like world class. Like he advanced in that field, you know, amazing at that point.

You know, he sort of proved himself there to the point where they were like, hey, come be in this movie with Bruce Lee, you know, so. That's such an interesting trajectory for like a small town, you know, Kentucky boy who grew up playing football and had an opportunity to do so at college and was like, no, not for me. I'm going this weird Eastern route. Yeah. And that is one of those. sad weird stories because i had i'd actually was he came to our town one of the times and i sat there all weekend trying to coordinate it so that i could get over there when he didn't and he always had people like he he's still like he had people that would just go up there and I would stand there and they would just be talking to him.

They would, you know, they would all have martial arts stories and they're like, I love this movie. And they would, they, so it was like that all weekend. Like he wasn't lying out the door, but like he always had people because people still like really loved him. And like, I don't know. He had, he seemed like really personable and he wanted to stand there and talk to him.

So I just kept trying to balance it out. And he always had people and didn't get a chance to try to set it up. When he came to town to your town that next time, um, And didn't get a hold of him and couldn't get in there. And then, like, within a few months, he was dead. And that kind of sucks.

So, again, just our own selfish reasons. But I would have liked to have sat there and talked to him. And I would have liked to have had him, you know, on the show. And didn't get to him. Kind of sucks when that happens.

Seize the day, people. Value your movie stars. Tell the ones. You love that you love them. Oh, wait.

Did we get sappy first? Tell Jim Kelly that you love him. That's almost creepy. You can tell him now he's in the universe he'll get it he'll get your message it'll translate up I will go lightly on this one because we already devoted an entire episode to it but I mean again being movie geeks you have to kind of acknowledge Ray Harryhausen and yeah again just go back I mean there is an entire episode where we sat and talked about his impact on filmmaking and on special effects and we actually had some great guests on that talked about, you know, how they were inspired by him. So yeah, there's, there's one back in the summer of this past year that it did remembering Ray, I believe is the title.

So if you, if you need more on the Ray Harryhausen thing, there is an entire episode devoted to him, but yeah, that was, that was a huge thing. That was as a kid, like I attached myself to his work quite a bit. And I think that's, why I have so many problems with special effects as they are now is because I watched the real version in my mind. Again, that's all subjective, but I liked the way his stop motion in particular went compared to most of the stuff they're doing now. Not all, there are some good, there is good CGI out there, but it is abused horribly a lot of the time.

So yeah, that was one that, that, I mean, again, there are certain ones that I guess you're not as shocked by. He was 92. So, you know, Those are a little more, you know, you kind of know those are coming, but it still sucks when you see like these major influential people pass on. I have a general story about people who died in 2013 that you could put in somewhere as a transition if you really wanted to. General story or funny story?

Here's a funny story about dead people. Speaking of dead people, what was that, the jack-o'-lantern walk that happened here in Louisville around. I've seen one of those. It was several years ago, but I've been to one of those. There was something important about this.

I just got dragged to it by a friend and was delighted by it because it's huge and it goes on forever. It's a lot of jack-o'-lanterns. It's a lot of jack-o'-lanterns, and it runs for a few weeks, so they have to trade out the jack-o'-lanterns. Some of them rot. You have to get new jack-o'-lanterns.

I don't know if they laser cut them. I don't know how they do them, but it's really impressive. At the very end of the walk, they had a deaths of 2013 tribute so there was margaret thatcher jack-o'-lantern and there was the jonathan winters jack-o'-lantern and it was really fun to try to well not that sounds morbid but it was really fun to sort of like identify because they're not you know it's a little it's a little abstract somebody's face and a jack-o'-lantern but there's this one jack-o'-lantern and we were trying to think of you know check off the people james there's a james gandolfini jack-o'-lantern And we were trying to check off sort of the names because there was this one face we couldn't figure out.

And we were like, well, this person died. Is it that person? No. Is it this person? No.

And we spent a lot of time on it. And then we were like, okay, well, we should probably let this go. So we walk out and there's a guy there. And he's like, do you have any questions? And we're like, well, actually, we do.

There's this one jack-o'-lantern at the end of the 2013, like, you know, people who died little tribute. And we can't figure out who he was. And he's like, oh, well, that's an interesting story. Okay. A couple weeks ago, there was a gentleman here, an elderly gentleman, and he walked through the tour.

At the very end of the tour, right after the tribute to the people who died in 2013, he walked out and he dropped dead in the parking lot. So we decided it would be a fitting tribute to give him a jack-o'-lantern. And it was that dude! In between Maggie Thatcher and James Gandolfini was the sweet old man who dropped dead quite happily, I would assume. They said that it wasn't like anything.

It was just old age. It just took him down in the parking lot. That's the way to go. He got overwhelmed by jack-o'-lanterns. In the middle of jack-o'-lanterns.

See, now this was a cool goosebump story at the end. They would be like, but who is that? And he'd go, that's you. It would be a crazy twist. And you'd be creeped out and you'd go to bed because your mom would yell at you.

Okay. So do we want to hit some of those pumpkin people? Yeah. I mean, we can hit James Gandolfini. That was definitely one.

That was a weird tie-in. I didn't mean to do that. He didn't get hit. He hit people all the time in the show. I don't think that was real.

I don't think that was his actual. I don't know. He did that in Get Shorty, too, though. He played it very well. And he kind of did that in True Romance.

Didn't he do that in The Mexican? I think we see some typecasting going on here. A little bit. That is. That was my thing.

Again, that was one that sort of caught people off guard. I mean, he wasn't young, and he, I guess, had not the most healthy lifestyle. But still, you didn't see that coming. But that was my first, like... And I guess that's the first time I kind of connected with him, too.

He'd been in stuff before. But that scene in True Romance, I mean, in a film that is littered with amazing performances, like every scene... I mean, you know, it's not even like our main characters. It's the other characters that are brought in all deliver these amazing scenes. The best Brad Pitt scene ever.

Sorry, I'm starting that out there. Only good Brad Pitt. Only because you like cleaning products. But it's like that scene, like, again, to stand out in that cast, in that film, is just like... And he did.

Like, it's one of those, you're like, who is that guy? Yeah, it's like that moment when you're sitting in the theater and you're like... I get a feeling I'm going to see more of him. And it definitely panned out and you see plenty more of him. But that scene, still, I went back and watched it that day.

As soon as Facebook was overrun with those posts, not quite recently, but there were still a lot of posts. That one was one that people really reacted to. And that was the first thing I did, was go back and watch that scene. And it's so good. He's just so...

And what could have been such a lightweight... performance if it you know if you gave it to a lesser actor it's like it's not a huge part of the movie it's one little transition scene with patricia arquette and like it could have just been nothing but some guy trying to come in and kill her and she kills him and that's the end but that little interaction that they have is so good i don't know that's still kind of my go-to for him is is that scene in true romance. And i think she's so much better in that scene than she generally is too which i think is probably part of partially due to him his ability brings. That out in people uh what i was i guess i mean it is funny he got kind of thrown into once the sopranos happened it took over his career as well as the rest of his life it seemed to so it really was something for him to try to break out of but i feel like he like he was turning in those performances along the way that he was showing he could do other stuff and he had range and like you get stuff like it's still like i'll hear people on the side kind of you know mentioned in the loop is one of his best performances that people kind of forget about and then i i don't know people are so black and white on where the wild things are but i think his vocal performance is so fitting to that character that like again it's just stuff like that that like could have gone horribly bad but you give it to him and it turns into something really impressive so he just it seemed like that last couple of years he started turning in stuff that was like even in that type of role, he was bringing more to it.

He was like these last few of like not fade away and killing them softly. And even enough said is like totally their departure, you know, a different kind of direction and was sort of well received. It, I guess was a sad way to look at it. You know, that was his last movie. At least they got released.

I think there's still one that was in the works, but it may have been his last completed movie, but he started trying to do and break out of that mold. So I don't know. Oh he was in the man that wasn't there that's right yeah. That's another one that's one of those that the movie itself is kind of forgotten. About but yeah i think that's one of their better ones.

It's again it's them they're constantly coming at you with left turns and like that's another one of those you'd like didn't see coming and is amazing and impressive and then you're like what Wait, what was that? And then they'll do something totally different after that. So they usually do kind of a milder movie in between bigger ones. That was right after Fargo? I think so.

Was it in between Fargo and Big Lebowski? It was a few years after Fargo, I think, wasn't it? I think it was right before... It was 2001. Intolerable Cruelty, which is one everybody hates, but I actually love.

See, that's another one of those people totally forget about. There's all those off ones of theirs that people are just like, oh, they did make that, didn't they? so do we want to address paul walker since we reference people dying in car crashes it was one of again do. What and porsche is no less well i think there's it happens yeah lesson to learn but he wasn't driving no. I mean, I just found that out. I thought he was.

So what was the deal? This was sort of like a side thing? He was charging people to ride with him or something? Wasn't that the thing? Everyone broke that day.

In his defense, who wouldn't want to ride around with Paul? I mean, I'd ride around with Paul. No, I thought that was the thing. It was like a little side job. I don't think that's how it went.

I had to learn that one. That's amazing. I knew how to do that. That's the most amazing extrapolation of that series of events ever. I kind of want to make that happen.

That could be a graphic. No, it was actually, I guess, one of his best friends, sadly. And they had been at a charity event. And I guess the story that I heard was that the valet didn't know how to drive the car. Because I guess maybe it was a sticker or it was just super fancy or there was something he just didn't know how to do.

And so they're like, well, we'll go ahead and park it ourselves. And then I guess Paul Walker was like, well, let's take it around the block first. And that's what happened. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Yeah, because he had just, like, I think he had just, like, said something to his daughter, like, right before he left. He's like, hey, I'll be back in a minute. And, like, they said from the event they could see the smoke. Like, they were literally around the corner from it. I forgot what even happened.

They just lost control? They were speeding and just lost control and hit a tree. It's weird how's that. It is yeah like i understand the james dean thing because it was this big long highway and everything else and he but right that. Was just in the city yeah to get going that fast and to be able to like that car was annihilated like it really and just like how fast were they going to like to immediately turn it into a fireball like That's a lot of speed.

Like, the fact that you could get that much from where they were on a city street in that short amount of time, and I don't know, it's very strange. You know, I saw a thing about James Dean when he, right, someone stole the car. the wrecked carcass of the car. There's a whole weird story about that, isn't there? Yeah, there's a huge story that goes on forever about all the weird places that wound up and terrible things that happened to the people that had it in their possession. I saw it, like, I remember, like, in the 90s, maybe?

It was for sale in some catalog. It was like a collector's kind of catalog. It had autographs and stuff and they had, it was just basically that frame, like, everything else was destroyed, but it's basically the framework of the spider and you could buy it. Like, it was there and, like, I guess it also comes with a free curse. If you act now, we'll throw in your death.

Guaranteed death in court. Well, someone did a sculpture, like a bust of him, because he's from northern Indiana. Yeah. And someone stole that right away. Well, they had to move his body because people were trying to dig up his grave after he was first buried.

I mean, people were stealing his headstone. I mean, it's crazy. Strange fascinations. There's a Morrissey video that he filmed in Indiana. That's actually how I got into the Smiths, weirdly.

I was obsessed with James Dean when I was a kid. Weirdly obsessed. Not like stealing bodies obsessed. There's a fine line. Let's just put it that way.

Fine line. I used to always have my parents, I would beg them to take me because they have an annual tribute of a weekend festival at Fairmount. And I went and I was at the music store there and there were all these pictures of this guy with this like trench coat, like standing next to like this grave. And they were all over the wall. And so I asked somebody there, I was like, who are these pictures of?

And they're like, well, it was this funny English fellow that came here. I guess he's real famous over there, but he came here to do a video, so we put the photos up. And so I looked into it, and I was like, ooh. Not so huge in Indiana. Well, it was actually in their defense.

It was right before his first solo record came out. So maybe they just didn't know he was a Smith. Yeah, it was Viva Hate. Yeah, I remember watching the video. It was on a compilation, something that someone gave me, and I recognized the sign.

What's that? Was it Homerist? The compilation? No, it was just a mix of stuff somebody recorded. I just saw those highway signs.

It looks like Indiana, and sure enough, he was right there. The Paul Walker thing I thought was weird. I guess, again, with all these people, maybe you don't know anything about their personal life. As much as we sensationalize people and we flood the media with nothing but stories about celebrities... I feel like there are so many people that you really don't know anything about them until after they die.

Like, I assumed Paul Walker was that pretty guy who makes a lot of movies with cars. And, like, he was both. But, like, as, like, as soon as he died, they started going into all, like, he's this huge philanthropist. And I was like, wait, wait, wait, Paul Walker? Like, I don't think I've ever, and obviously it was huge, but, like, I don't live in that city.

I guess I didn't see any of the posts about things he was putting together, but. It was a huge, like his, it was like Reach Out Worldwide, which was like relief efforts for natural disasters. Like who would have known Paul Walker? Like that's amazing. That's great.

But like you don't know that kind of stuff until after the fact a lot of the time. What else did he do besides the car movies? There was something I saw. I'm going with mine. My go-to before I ever paid attention to him in Fast and Furious, his other car movie was Joyride is awesome.

I don't care what anybody says. It's one of those that got thrown out as, again, sort of an exploitation kind of, oh, it's a killer on the road kind of movie. But if you go back and watch it, it's a solid movie, and it's a really good thriller, and Steve Zahn is not as annoying as he is in other roles. It's an interesting mixture of them and that plot. I stand by Joyride.

I don't care. So which ones were you thinking of? Well, apparently he was in Varsity Blues. Which I forgot about that. Yeah, see, I avoided that.

No, it makes sense. He's the one who broke his leg. Oh. I had a friend who thought that was the best worst movie on the planet. So you would end up seeing this movie and just laughing your ass off because he enjoyed it so much.

So that's a bad movie. Along with a lot of weird sports movies. He was in Timeline. Oh, yeah. I just watched that in the last year or so.

What an odd movie that is, isn't it? He was in Pleasantville. I didn't know that. Yeah, I think I forgot about that one. The other thing that was weird, like, again, of his other stuff, like learning about his life, they list Paul's first passion was marine biology, which, again, he was actually doing.

He joined the board of directors of the Bill Fish Foundation, and he actually did a National Geographic channel series about great white sharks, and he actually spent 11 days as part of the crew. Wow. Like, how do you know Pretty Boy was into marine biology? I don't know. It was just like, I didn't see all this coming.

Yeah, I think it's kind of a testament to how kind of, I guess, apparently awesome of a dude he was that we didn't know anything about his philanthropy. I don't know if there was that story, which may or may not be true. I'm going to say it's true. That was circulating on Facebook about the engagement ring. Did anybody pick up on that story?

Again, as soon as he died, the stories came out that he was the most awesome person on earth. And if that one's true... He might be. That's pretty damn, I mean, like, completely selfless and for no good reason other than I guess he could. I mean.

What else is he going to do with all that money? I mean, it's easier to be nice if you're loaded, I suppose. But you don't have to be. You could be a dick like most people. Or you could be nice and need credit for it all the time.

Because I guess the story is that he was, like, at a jewelry store and there was, like, a veteran next to him who just come back from work. the war and he was buying an engagement ring for his fiance but he didn't like have enough money to buy what he really wanted so paul walker wound up buying it for him but like telling the sales staff that they were not allowed to tell him that paul walker had bought this engagement ring for his fiance and so it wasn't until he died that she would felt that she could reach out to this couple and be like you know that engagement ring that we just gave you that was actually paul walker But he. Stood in there, like, talking to them, so I guess they knew who he was, and he was just like.

Oh, which one do you really like? Yeah, but it's funny that, like, he was just kind of like, hey, what you guys doing? Like, oh, okay, here, give him that ring. Again, like, who does that? That's kind of amazing.

So I'll assume that's true because, you know, he seems like a pretty good guy. Why would it not? Would you bother making that story? I mean, if you wanted publicity for your jewelry story, maybe. Yeah, but if you were the guy and you actually bought that ring, you'd be like, hell no, I bought that ring.

I'm in debt for the rest of my life for that damn ring. I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, it's like, why would you make that up? I'd be like, no, that is my ring. I paid for that ring.

I wonder if that tore that relationship apart. She loves Paul Walker more than me. Why did she marry Paul Walker? Well, that wouldn't have gone well either. Uh-oh.

All of these stories kind of end one way. I hate to tell you, but none of these are happy stories. He was also in Running Scared. I don't know if anybody saw that. It should have been a terrible movie, and it was a terrible movie, but it was also a great movie.

The only crystal movie? Different Running Scared. That's what I thought. I love Gregory. It was this very dark film with Vera Farmiga in it that is kind of amazing.

It's... They very much sold it as a different movie than it was. It was supposed to be like an action movie in the trailers, but really it was this very sort of dark, sort of fractured fairy tale sort of thing about a boy trying to escape this life of his. Well, another one I'll just mention so people don't say we forgot it, but I won't go into it because we kind of did. a whole little thing on this when he passed Roger Ebert was kind of huge in the film world and I think we should at least add him to the list here but yeah again this was early in the year we that was sort of our intro on that episode we did a little wrap up on that so we have at least touched on the Roger Ebert thing in the past so he was pretty awesome.

Yeah, he was awesome. And he liked to eat spaghetti while he watched movies. Yes, that's, that's, so the story goes. He's another one of those though. You found out so much more about him those last couple of years that you're like, really?

It was like the shit that he went through and the stuff that he was dealing with that like, he just kept writing every day. Like as much horror as was going on in his life, he's just like, and I put out four new reviews yesterday. It's like, geez, he was so much more productive in those last few years because that's what he had. That's the one thing left he could do. Yeah, he was pretty impressive, regardless of if you like to disagree with him a lot, but so did Gene.

It's okay. Do we have any Jonathan Winters stories? To me, he was one of those, especially with comedy, you either kind of get their comedy. You click with it or you don't. And it was one of those, I always appreciated him.

He was very influential and a lot of people cite him as one of their big influences, but I just kind of never got into his comedy. But that's just me. Well, I think what was funny about him, he always seemed to have more in his head than he was actually letting... There was more to the joke than what he was... I don't know if that makes sense.

He just sort of had this knowledge about him. Well, it was almost like it was a bigger joke that you were just coming in on part of it. Yeah. Like he would, he would come up like it was like his character had backstory that he would never tell you about, but it felt like he had invested so much in creating these characters, the crazy characters and stuff that like the backstory and the work that he did was probably more impressive than the actual like five minutes you would get with him on some variety show. It's like, I, I, you know, I, I always give him credit.

Like he was very dedicated to comedy and like, doing something different with comedy, but usually I just didn't connect with a lot of the performances, but I mean, he was, he was well-respected definitely in the comedy scene. I loved him in Mark and Mindy. I loved him in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, maybe. Extra Mads. Throw some more Mads in there.

A couple Mads in their world. I always loved that. Anyway. everybody in that is just too much fun. I actually did Mourn for Jonathan Winters like 7 years ago so I got all the sadness out of my system I was completely convinced he had died and I don't know why except for the fact that he was elderly but we used to do this team trivia thing once a week and we had a question that was like dead or alive and I staked our whole team and ruined everybody was very angry at me because I was positive that Jonathan Winters and I'm usually pretty good at those I was positive that Jonathan Winters was dead So while his passing was upsetting to me on a personal level, I felt like it had already gone through all the stages.

And you tried to cash in on your points then. You called the place up. You're like, look, I'm right. It just took seven years, but I'm totally right. Oh, let's see.

I at least wanted to acknowledge Annette Funicello in my early Mouseketeer days, you know. I don't know that I was sold on her the way most kids were at that point, but I thought it was more interesting that like when she grew up to get into the movies, like that weird run of beach movies that like couldn't have happened without her and Frankie. So it's like everything, they created this weird sub genre and like it spun off and there were all these other ones that didn't have anything to do with them, but it all kind of came from, you know, I guess there was like running through all these like beach party, muscle beach party, bikini beach, pajama party, beach blanket bingo and how to stuff a wild bikini all within a three year span wow that's a lot of movies about one thing or at least centering around one location.

That beach party was. Awesome one big beach party and she still fell into that weird thing of you can't show your navel which is funny like at that point when everything like Barbara Eden had that issue too and like So she, like, and it was mostly, like, the Disney thing. Disney requested that she only wear one-piece bathing suits because she was a mascoteer. Or at least that she keep her navel covered. So even the two-piece she had, I think, had a weird fishnet, high-waisted, yeah, some sort of craziness covering up her navel, which I'm not sure why that's such.

A big deal. Was she still a mascoteer when she did those? No. Again, at that point, I think, hadn't the show already shut down at that point and maybe a new incarnation. They kept rebooting it every 10 years or so.

And it usually didn't take every time they kept trying that, but the first run was really the only one that kind of was successful, but no, but I think anytime you're connected to Disney, they're kind of like the mafia. They have strange contracts. I would think you're in, you're in for life. Yeah. That's pretty much how it works until you do spring breakers.

Oh no, you're still, you have to get it cleared through Walt. they, they, they thaw him out and they're like, is this okay? And he nods. That's really all I can do. But anyway, but I do remember like we, we just recently, uh, we were watching back to the beach, which was sort of their reboot attempt, which is, it's not a great movie. I'll tell you, but it is funny.

Like as we were watching it, one of the other people sitting there going, you can kind of tell, like she's already dealing with stuff. Like she's, she's, she seems like she's on light duty. You know, she's not running around the whole time. Like you can kind of tell something's going on. And it was right at that time that she was starting to piece together.

Like, I think even she wasn't a hundred percent sure. She just figured it out and didn't want to tell people because she didn't want. So yeah, they said she was having like dizzy spells and stuff during the filming of this. So it, I think that's when it all kicked in. And later she came out and wanted to publicly announce what she's suffering from.

She's dealing with multiple sclerosis because she was afraid people would start spreading rumors that she was drunk when she was filming things. And that really is why she went public with it. She didn't want rumors getting out. And then it became more of a, okay, now the disease needs a face. It needs someone to kind of head up these organizations.

And we have a Mouseketeer. Yeah, we've got a pretty high-profile name there. It ended up being really good for the cause, but it's funny that that was kind of why she wanted to go public, was she didn't want rumors starting, because she would be kind of stumbling around, and again, people were going to start saying things about her. I thought that was interesting, too. It was that early on.

In 92, up until recently, she kind of dealt with all that, so that's a lot of time to fight with that. I thought if we're doing like old school Hollywood, Deanna Durbin, we've got to at least tie in. That's one of those that I, it came from, from the movie geek, you know, the video store days. I was someone who had never seen a Deanna Durbin movie, but I could name everything that got re-released. There was a weird run in like the nineties where they re-released a whole series of her films.

And like, I'm like a, dorky guy and for some reason I can name all of the Deanna Durbin collection but will. You because I'm embarrassed to say I don't. Know I'm looking it up right now three smart girls first love spring parade those were kind of the big ones at that point she was pretty she was pretty huge at that I'm trying to think where she was in it started with Eve can't help singing but like it was funny they said early on speaking of Walt Disney thing it says she auditioned to provide the vocals for Snow White in that in that animated film and like walt disney rejected her saying that her 15 year old voice was too old for the part how old is snow white supposed to be how creepy are we making this story but um she's 13 it is interesting that like they going through all the list of her stuff like it says in 1946 she was the second highest paid woman in the united states just behind betty davis Wow.

That's kind of huge for, you know, 46. That's a big deal. So what was her thing? Like, what was her image? What did she do?

Make movies. But did she, was she a bad girl? Was she a good girl? Was she? It looks like, I mean, she was mainly a singer too because.

All the movies. Yeah, she did a lot of musicals. But beyond that, I've never seen any of those movies. Yeah, I feel dumb to say I don't even really recognize her name. I think she did a lot of like, girl next door kind of roles in the beginning.

And then she got into the later part of her career and she wanted to do a little more. She wanted to. So at some point she does do kind of a film noir thing and she's trying to like give herself a little more range and depth. Go a little Natalie Wood. I don't know if anybody actually was on board with that, but she, she was trying to do more with that.

So there you go. Deanna Durbin, there's your homework project. Have any of us ever seen an Esther Williams movie? That was another one. Those two were the two of that era that I figured we're going to have to touch on at least.

Because I think that story is kind of amazing. The Esther Williams story? Yeah. Well just like her well like her situation like oh just she's a swimmer and now she's a movie star and now she's a movie star who's in swimming turned into yeah it's like being a swimmer and and the reason did you see why like she basically she was like setting all these national and regional swimming records in her teens and then She wanted to go to the Olympics and World War II broke out. So she didn't get to go to the Olympics because of that.

And I guess you've only got that window, especially then. I mean, now you kind of can drag it out for a few years. But I mean, you've only got, what, eight years at that point, maybe. So it's funny that because of that, she joined this Billy Rose Aquacade and she started taking these performance roles. And then at some point, MGM scouts got a hold of her and were like, hey, we want you to be in this. and then they created a term aqua musicals the fact that you can create your own like not just sub-genre but a title for a specific movie that then they make more than one of.

That yeah i guess she has a one-woman genre. There is no other yeah i mean how many other they've made fun of it in other movies later but like nobody ever full-on embraced that and tried to make that happen again it It's sort of the joke now when you go into a crazy musical number in a pool. It's hilarious. But, you know, they were serious when they did those then. It's very strange that that happened.

Again, you can't have that in this world. But, I mean, I was thinking there's so many other people that go from like a sports career that crossover. I mean, she actually was in Tarzan. With Johnny I was about to say the only other I'm a big fan of museums that exist for no apparent reason and there is a swimming museum and hall of fame in Fort Lauderdale. And there's like a whole tribute to Esther Williams and then the other tribute is like a very small tribute to Johnny Weissmuller and Tarzan so I was about to ask I was like oh well that's the other swimmer but no they clearly there's crossover you can't have a swimming movie without Esther Williams in it apparently Yep.

She worked alongside him at some point. But I was just talking about now. I mean, you look at all the weird crossovers we have of like, look how huge a star The Rock is. I mean, he's sort of sports. Entertainment, but...

I mean, I would still say that comes from more of a sporting angle than he crossed over and is a full-fledged movie star now. Or even like they let Shaq make movies. I mean, there's like such weird crossover now that like, It still happens, and it's still equally as odd to me, but that was strange. Aqua musicals, it's a weird world. So did it ever occur to them to let her out of the pool?

Did she try to do a couple movies. Without a pool? There was a cage. They would not let her. Out.

This is the story of three girls. One who wanted something very much, but was too young to know how to get it. One who was old enough to know how to get it, but nobody wanted her. And one who had everything, and yet didn't know what she wanted. They all joined the Navy and became three girls with one idea.

Men. What good is a gal without a guy? What good is the earth without the sky? The flowers would fail to show without the sun. To make them grow.

What good is a gal without a guy? And this is the guy they had in mind. Barry Sullivan. Been stood up, honey, or just all by yourself? Just all by myself.

Like us. Isn't that nice? You don't mind our being so direct. Look, we don't like rushing things, but we've only got four hours to get back to the base. That is depressing.

Well, it's depressing, but it's not final. There's always an angle if you can think of a good enough reason. And there's a good enough reason. Oh, you gotta give me water, cause a whole lot of water makes a way. Skirts Ahoy is a great, big, wonderful show.

The comedy is fast and hilarious. The romance warm and alluring. And the songs are terrific. And Esther Williams is gorgeous. You'll meet Joan Evans, one of Hollywood's newest and youngest stars.

And Vivian Blaine, that Guys and Dolls sensation. You'll see Barry Sullivan. Hear the singing DeMarco sisters. Debbie Reynolds introduces Bobby Vann in a big surprise number. And Esther Williams introduces two amazing protégés, underwater.

Here we come, strips of heart. Strips of heart, here we come. Strips of heart. A-hoi, a-hoi, a-hoi, strips of heart. Strips of heart, strips of heart.

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Tweaked Audio. Sounds better. Hello, creeps. It's me, the Crypt Keeper. And you're listening to Movie Meltdown, the greatest movie geek show on Earth.

Eileen Brennan died. I just watched Clue the other night and I didn't realize that until. I think I've mentioned that lately. That's one of those that only lately has found its love. Clue?

People didn't care about Clue when it came out. It's hilarious. In these last five years or so, I've heard so many people reference that as one of their... I think it was that one thing, like it kicked in as you were a kid and you watched it on cable and now you're grown up and you're like, no, I love that movie! There's so many that kind of Find that 15, 20 year span of all of a sudden everybody realizes, that was.

My favorite movie when I was a kid. Because people did not like that. Really? I remember tons of people. He was loving it.

I thought it was at 85, I'm. Thinking. I remember seeing it and I don't know, maybe I just wanted to go and play the game at the movie theater. So for me, it was just like, this isn't the game. But then later on, once I grew a sense of humor, it was like, oh, this movie's hilarious.

So now I totally appreciate it. It's so ridiculous and that's kind of why it works. Again, I don't think people were prepared for that. It's a weird style of comedy that, again, you gotta get it or you don't. And if you're on the outside of that, you're just like, what the hell is this movie?

But if you get it, it's pretty hilarious. And the performances are all really good. Some pretty classic performances in that movie alone, but Yeah, she gets added into that. Still probably not her most well-known role. Was it Private Benjamin?

Yeah, Private Benjamin. Again, that's one of those I don't think she ever got away from that. She was so well-known for that that I don't think she ever... Oh, was she in The Last Picture Show? Yeah, I think she was.

That's in my top five movies. That's a great one. Again, it's been years. I need to go back and re-watch. What was her?

Oh, she was the waitress in the Cafe, I think. Yeah, I think she died just like a couple weeks before Karen Black did. So it sort of felt like all the great ladies of the 70s were getting taken down simultaneously. Yeah, it was the last picture show. She's in The Sting.

Oh, right. If I remember, she shows up when we had our viewing of Jeepers Creepers. Doesn't she make an odd appearance? Oh, no. Isn't she the weird neighbor lady?

Oh, yes. Oh, my gosh. Because we were sitting there going, is that Eileen Briggs? I had forgotten that. What a strange.

Flashback. You guys can go back and listen to that one too. You'll hear us complain about Jeepers Creepers. That was a terrible movie. It has its moments.

That was yet another. I was in Marie and it was cheap, so I went and saw it. The first half is pretty good, actually. The end is, I don't understand their wrap up, but again, they had problems on that set, I believe. But I think the setup has some pretty solid stuff in it.

So you say. I do. The car stuff, the house stuff is all really creepy. And then once he starts following around, it takes a weird turn. Yeah.

I don't know about the rest of it. Then they wouldn't make a second one. We'll get back to that. Okay. So, okay, this was one that normally would cross into an area I wouldn't bother with because I don't like to read.

But. there were not one, but kind of two really influential authors that had a big impact on movies. The most for me, Elmore Leonard, I think I stated this online when he died. I was like, I don't know if there's ever been somebody that kind of translated to film better because so many times, like every time you see something gets translated from a book to a movie, people just bitch because it's not as good as the book, which to me, I hate that argument anyway. But like, there's so many times when people are like, no, that actually is a really good movie and like it's based on this book which is also a good book but like they kind of work in their own world and just about all the stuff they did there's a few off but there's a lot of good stuff that he did that got turned into good movies and it was out of sight is kind of brilliant like it's still One of my favorite movies.

It is so well put together. Get Shorty was amazing. 310 to Yuma. It was all pretty solid stuff that he put out, and somehow whoever they handed it to most of the time found a good way to sort of translate it. So I thought that was one at least for a tie-in there.

I just thought that was an interesting scenario that it's so rare that they can do justice in some aspect. Again, that's always arguable, but I always felt like they did a pretty good job with this stuff. And then if we're on that note, Tom Clancy, you got to have your Jack Ryans. Yeah, I was just watching Patriot Games the other night. There's a new one out there right now with Captain Kirk.

Oh, I forgot about that. Or Jack Ryan or whoever he is this week. I don't know. There's no telling. Which I've heard is surprisingly not terrible.

It looks interesting. I watched the trailer. I was like, I'll watch it at some point. I don't have a problem with it. I mean.

But it is one of those, like, they just kept making those. And I think half of it, like, again, you don't even have an actor to follow through. Like, it changes hands four times at least. So I'm like, that's a lot of passing it off for it to still be successful enough for them to keep making movies. Like, that's, I guess, a credit to Tom Clancy for writing somewhat interesting stories because they kept making movies out of them.

So, yeah. I was thinking David Mamet, but he writes more, I guess, straight screenplays. I was thinking someone that interprets well. Yeah, most of his stuff he actually writes. Yeah, that's true.

But I guess he does a little of both. I don't think he'd die. Yeah. No, no. I had a panic moment for a second.

I was just thinking of writers. I knew the point you were making. I was just like, now we made people think he's dead. Sorry. Still alive.

Don't convince your trivia team that he's dead and. Lose all the points. You will lose so many points. But Movie Meltdown told me. But feel free to reference us for all your wrong information.

So while we're on that scenario, Dennis Farina, who is in several Elmore Leonard treatments. Oh, wow. Again, he is amazing and out of sight. Isn't he in Shorty? Yeah, he's in Shorty too.

Thought he was in both of those. But like, I don't know, all of his. Like Snatch and Midnight Run. And he's in the original Manhunter, which I still think is very underrated. Which one? manhunter oh that's that's a it's so good yeah it's one that for years people didn't realize was even around but it's a great movie thief which is now sort of found a little comeback because somebody else made a movie kind of like try it oh it's very it's very reminiscent of thief i watched it after hearing everybody say that and i'm like yeah yeah i mean not story-wise but stylistically It's, you can tell he's just sat there watching that movie.

He's like, all right, let's go make our movie. Oh, you know who else died? The guy, the Indian guy that was in those Wes Anderson movies. Yeah. I mean, he had those little bits.

I know he did probably at other, but I know it's. What he was known for. Kumar Palani. Yeah, yeah. Which I may be butchering his name.

So sorry about that too. But yeah, that's how they bill it. There's just like, if you like Wes Anderson. Right. I know.

Yeah. He probably did plenty more. He's in Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums, Darjeeling. Uh yeah so yeah didn't dennis frank was am i making this up did he wasn't he like a cop that was brought on as like. A technical advisor i'm pretty sure that was his old yeah again it's it's interesting when people come to acting later in life having had a whole different career and i'm pretty sure that's what it was he got brought on originally for something as like a technical advisor and like he was like this is pretty cool and like 30 years later, he's cashing in that law and order check.

And I'm like, hell yeah, I'll do this. This is old hat to me. How did he die? He was 69, so. Blood clot in his lung.

Yes. Yeah. All right. Do we want to go to the big one? Because I can't believe, like, I wrote it down because I'm a dork, but I can't believe when I got here, like, the first name you fired out, Josh.

We got to talk about Conrad Baines. Not where I thought we were going, but as soon as we were, yeah, you were pretty excited. So I have my reason, and my specific one was a film reason. Again, it's odd that I just referenced this about a week or so ago. I got all excited because someone else got my reference to Chomps.

The greatest movie ever, when I was a small child. I'm afraid if I revisit it now, I will not be as impressed. But, okay, look. Don't go back. It's it's a first of all the main character's name is brian that's awesome uh he has a robot dog and his girlfriend is valerie bertinelli what's not the like in this world so i'm just saying as a kid i thought that was the most awesome movie ever robot dogs and valerie bertinelli and conrad.

Bane what who does conrad. I believe he's valerie bertinelli's father and what is the conflict in chomp. There is a lot of craziness going on. Now, Brian has created a robot dog and he's going to revolutionize the world with this robot dog because he looks like a real dog. And there's another rival group.

I don't know if, I don't remember now if there's some sort of like industrial group that wants to steal it, probably for the military. And like, but of course they send the two most bumbling idiots to go steal it from them. So they're chasing them around the whole time and falling over stuff and Again, when I think about it, it's really dumb. But as a child, a robot dog was kind of awesome. And Valerie Bertinelli, so I'm just saying.

I'm sold. I'm telling you. This was my reference, and I kind of impressed the person the other day. I not only liked the movie, I had the book treatment of it. When they would go through and create the little book, I'm sure it came from the book club.

No, when they would just make the read-along kind of book. I'm sure I got it from the book club at school or whatever stupid thing. Remember when they did those? Yeah, the Scholastic. Did they do those for kids?

I don't know. I don't think they read. Maybe not. It's odd that I had the book because I just probably was hoping it had pictures. Yeah, I thought that was funny.

Somewhere I have the book version. How did you find this other human being on the planet who had, in fact, seen this movie? Um he works at well obviously a big geek and but i read reference and he was like oh yeah thank you finally someone gets my chomps reference anyway there are periods in between all those by the way. Oh of course because i'm sure it stands for canine something or other do we really want to know anyway But that was my go-to because at the time I was like, oh, that's how I knew Conrad Bane. And of course, Mr.

Drummond is in this movie. So, I mean, that's the only way I knew him really was he was in Chomps and Different Strokes. But if you go back, he actually does have a career. He's in Coogan's Bluff and Bananas and the Anderson Tapes and Up the Sandbox and all these other legit movies. Most of them weren't huge roles.

It's like he's always like a doctor or some fancy gentleman, which again goes to what we all know him as. a rich white dude so you know it seems fitting that but i did remember uh they'd mentioned he's in the i think he's her dad in postcards from the edge or her grandfather is it like he's he's in the home like he's really old at that point which it's funny that he still lived many years after that but he looks so much older than what you're used to from you know 70s television so seeing him and that was kind of a weird shock so it's funny that that was a long time before this year so He still was around for quite a long time. And I just went back and watched, I don't think I'd ever seen the episode of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that he was on as Phil Drummond.

Oh, they put Phil Drummond on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Because I was looking through it and I'm like, obviously he works his way into plenty of television. But yeah, I looked and he was credited as that. And then I was like, okay, it's got to be on there. So I went back and watched it.

It's them trying to sell the house and phil drummond and arnold come to do a walkthrough of the house because they want to buy it so this is that many years later and for some reason arnold's still hanging out with mr drummond and living with them and it's a very odd but yet i'm kind of glad he phil came back in the. 90s you know he's still out there at that point well that reminds me how do you find will smith in the snow oh god oh you look for the fresh prints. Anyway. I think we just close on that. I don't know.

I can throw out some others in case we missed any. I saw that Harry Reams from Deep Throat died. Yeah, that was a weird one. Just because everything he was involved with as time's gone on has gotten. Creepier and creepier.

So I'm just like, okay. That happened. There's a lot of weird stuff going on around that film. He might have been in the porn version of Chomps. I'm trying to go somewhere with that and I wish I wasn't.

So we'll move on. Sorry, Michael. And Sarah that we're following you but so yeah that was one that he was an interesting one and one of those like they would put his picture up and you're like oh wait I do know that guy again a lot of it was TV he was yeah he's Commander Kang on Star Trek he was like the first incarnation of a Klingon on Star Trek, but he actually was, um, he played like a native American and all these like TV series and then film roles. And like, he actually had a huge impact. I think on that at that point, because he was sort of, I don't even know what his, uh, nationality was, but it was one of those.

Are we talking about Billy Jack? No, we're still getting to him. This is Michael and Sarah. I don't know who Michael and Sarah is. If you bring it up, he's, it's just like, you'll be like, Oh yeah, I do know that guy.

He's like Kane and Buck Rogers. He's like, He was on the NBC series, Law of the Planesmen. He's actually got a huge amount of credit. A lot of them were TV. One of which, though, I was going to say was probably, because I don't think I realized it was him, but one of my favorite things ever, specifically in the Batman world, the episodes with Mr.

Freeze, before they bastardized him with that horrible movie version of him, the animated series version of Mr. Freeze is amazing. And that first... that first episode where they introduce his character and do that story, like it's kind of heartbreaking. And like, he does the voice of Mr. Freeze and he does it so well.

And that, and like just delivers like this, again, it's such a layered performance for an animated show that they pretend like is for kids and like is on in the middle of the afternoon. But like that series as a whole was so impressive, but his character more than just about any is, is just, I don't know. It's, it stands out. So I thought it was great to find out he also did the voice for that. But I didn't know if he did.

Yeah, he was kind of like in all of his old movie shows. I mean, The Witch, I Dream of Jeannie. Well, also for his I Dream of Jeannie tie-in, married to Barbara Eden. Oh. I thought that was...

Wait, are we still talking about Harry Reams? Seriously I thought we were and I'm like I'm looking them up and I'm just. Like wait we'll say Michael and Sarah I don't know how to spell it for some reason we blocked out his name I missed sorry Michael A-N-S-A-R-A Michael and. Sarah did you know who we were talking about I did oh because I had it up I am you know going oh yeah I watched that show and that show and that show. Oh lord but yeah since you brought it up we should do Tom Laughlin who was Billy Jack, among many other things, but he's.

Just amazing as a guy. Whether or not, again, I just watched Billy Jack in the last couple years, and it's still... His scenes hold up as a story. It's almost overlong, and there's a lot of hippie crap I can do without. No offense.

I mean, I know that's part of the story, but there's some drawn-out scenes of them at the school with the kids that probably should have been trimmed out. But I wanted to give him more credit as... filmmaker in this time where like indie filmmaker is such a cool thing to be it's so easy to do now this guy was like shooting it on film financing it all himself writing the movies directing the movies half the time starring in the movies like I don't know it was like kind of impressive how much he was just proactive to do this stuff on his own like he just came up with this idea and was like all right well I'm gonna make a movie out of it and That's a huge undertaking in the 60s and 70s when he was doing it.

It's pretty easy to do with a digital camera now, but to come up with all the money and stuff on your own back then, this is back when it really was guerrilla filmmaking and he was out there just kind of shooting what he wanted to shoot. I think he's pretty badass as Billy Jack. It's even more interesting as it goes on and he continues to get more and more political to the point that Billy Jack Goes to Washington never got an official release because they shut him down. Like the politics involved in it pissed off enough people along the way they would not let him release it. And I think it was just, I think it made it out there in bootlegs.

But I think in the last like four or five years when they did that box set of all the DVDs was the first real release it ever had. Definitely ever on like DVD or anything. was that that's how long it took for them to actually get that version of the story out because he pissed off a lot of people and then i think uh the one that i don't think i knew until actually it was again when he died you start looking up the stuff about him he ran for president twice for two different parties what the hell like how does that happen uh. What were the two different parties in in 92 um let's see he sought the democratic party nomination for president He told the Milwaukee Sentinel, I am the least qualified person I know to be president, except George Bush.

So obviously he had issues with what was going on there. A lot of this, I think, was, again, he was pissed off about stuff. He's like, I want to, if nothing else, use myself as an example. I want to put myself up there to be almost just to piss people off, but to get the word out that I don't like what's going on. And I think he...

I think he knew he wasn't going to be taken seriously. And as it panned out, he wasn't. They said in the debates they wouldn't consider him a serious candidate, so he would get five minutes to talk, and then they would give 20 minutes to what they consider real candidates. And they really did sort of shove him to the side because they thought it was all just a big stunt for him. But I think he was serious.

I just think he knew people weren't going to take him seriously. But I think it's funny that he got 1,986 votes in New Hampshire primary. That's a lot of people for somebody who's just kind of pulling a stunt, according to them. But then in 2004, he ran as a Republican, campaigning against the Iraq War. What the hell?

How can you not be fascinated by this guy? That sounds like he just wanted to be in the early Republican debates. It actually sounds very savvy. I like that sort of angle of political activism. He's an interesting guy.

I've got to give him credit. That was a shame, because I would have liked to have seen more... craziness come out of him because he was he was an interesting character. I knew and i thought harry reams was just known for deep. Throat man you love deep throat i've never even seen it but that's your story i'm just impressed by this guy's career not. Buying it i thought we were on tom laughlin did i lose track again i'm being.

An ass i'm sorry anyway. All right well if that is i have to work in joan fontaine That was huge. I forgot about that. That was huge. And had a specific tie-in because I did contact her yesterday.

I wanted to at least get a quote. And this is a very Misty-esque quote. Her response was she was hella awesome. And it's just true. You can go back.

I think the Rebecca episode is still up there. Misty loves Rebecca. It is, again, as she puts it, one of my most favoritest movies ever. So this is very Misty if you're familiar with her. But it was my take on that was she had actually tried to get a hold of her and like she was seeing if she was still like doing autographs and stuff like that.

So in this past year Misty actually wrote to her and got a response and she sent her two like she actually autographed two photos for her. So she like right in this like probably it was less than a year before she died. She wrote her back sent her two photos that are now like At Misty's house. I've seen them. They're very nice.

So the fact that she was still interacting with her fans at 96, that's impressive. That she was still kind of being cool and interacting with fans. I thought that was something that sort of personalized it for us. I thought that was kind of cool. I didn't know that Misty was a super fan.

When you said I had to get a comment from her, I thought you meant her sister. Maybe. Maybe. Do you have her sister's number? No, do you know the story?

We can call her right now. But isn't Joan Fontaine, am I conflating my celebrities? I think that is true. Isn't Joan Fontaine the sister of, oh God, I can't remember. Google.

Hold on. To the Google. Our brains are useless now. You realize that. Well, I can never remember.

Well, I know. I know what story you're talking about, but I know if I pick one of the actresses at the. Time, it'll be the wrong one. If you say the name, I'll know the name. Slappy Wilson.

Maybe we should do a podcast on movies that are acronyms. Because I'd like to see Chomps. Well, then there's Chud. Darryl. Darryl.

Um.... Oh, there's more. All right. Lucy, continue on. With your story.

Olivia de Havilland is the name that I was trying to remember because it's one of the greatest stories. It's one of the greatest Hollywood stories ever. It's pretty interesting. Really. And I'm going to conflate the two of them because I can never remember who's who and who's older and who was slighted by who and whose mom sighted with who.

But basically what it comes down to is I've always thought that they were trying to outlive each other. And that that was like the final competition between these two sisters who had been warring since the thirties or whenever it was, because they're both in their nineties. I mean, my God, it's like, and I was like, I bet you anything the day after Olivia de Havilland will pass away and she'll just be like, I gotcha. But she's still out there. Yes.

Yeah. But yeah, I mean the whole thing, I mean, I don't know if any and I'm not the one to tell this story because I obviously don't know it since I'm struggling to remember Olivia de Havilland's name but they one sister was the favorite of the mother and And then the other sister wasn't allowed to use their actual surname because. The mother didn't want her to act at all. And then when she went and did it anyway, she wouldn't let her use the family name or something to that effect. And then there's a year where they were both nominated for Oscars.

And one of them got it and the other didn't. And then there was stories about who couldn't come to family funerals. And surely there was a man in there somewhere. I mean, it was craziness for just decades. They just... lived off of their hatred for each other.

If not you need to start writing the screenplays this sounds like i would watch this movie so you need to make a movie out. But yeah so jen fontaine sorry olivia got this. One damn it richard griffiths who the harry potter geeks would know as uncle vernon who was a jackass in those movies but he passed away so i guess we can't do any like extra harry potter chapters that they're jamming in there now or You'll have to write him out now. I guess. I don't know.

What else? Oh, well. Cory Monteith, but I don't know. He didn't have a whole lot of... I guess he probably wasn't banking on his Final Destination 3 performance.

He was very TV-oriented. Except for Bloody Mary and Monte Carlo. I have a friend who looks exactly like Cory Monteith. His name's Will Mack. And for days afterward, I had this weird feeling that Will Mack was dead, even though I knew he wasn't.

But I just kept seeing pictures of him on TV. Why didn't he get a hold of the people and they just swap him out? Actually, maybe. And the character could have gone on. And he could start dating Lea Michele.

I think he's single. Oh, there you go. That's just a bonus. I mean, that's, you know, on the side. But within the story, they could continue on.

We had Brad Leslie, best known for playing the angry pitcher in Little Big League. But was also in Mr. Baseball, Space Jam, and Big Monster on Campus. So I thought, you know, got to work those references in. Julie Harris.

Oh. That's speaking of our James Dean connection there, East of Eden. So that was, that was, again, you get the older ones that you kind of lose track of sometimes. She was great. Actually, Ed Lauder, he's like, of those people, oh my God, I've seen his face everywhere kind of thing.

Like once I brought it up, I was like, good Lord, he wasn't everything. Like again, it was a lot of TV, but like, He worked in so many, he's in like 200 different properties, I think, once you go look him up. He was in a huge amount of stuff. Dale Robertson was a bunch of Westerns. Jane Henson, that was pretty influential.

I think people didn't realize how connected she was to the Henson empire, but she sort of started it with him, and I don't think we would have had all of that had she not been as involved as she was. There's Lou Reed. And technically he was in, I've only seen him, I've seen him in one movie. Was it The Follow-Up to Smoke? Blue in the Face?

I think he was. He had a great little cameo. If I remember, that one wasn't that great. It was just extra footage. But it's one of those for the connection.

Yeah, because I watched them both because Smoke's pretty good. I remember watching Blue in the Face and being like, it does just feel like stuff they would have taken. Out of it. It's interesting watching them together because there's so much crossover there. That was more.

Well, like the Grey Gardens, they did a second Grey Gardens that was from the leftover footage. But I think that one is even more interesting in some ways. I don't know if you've seen either one of those. But I love that little Lou Reed. He's talking about smoking and whatever.

Imagine that. He was also in Get Crazy. Did anybody see Get Crazy? No. It's like a rock and roll spoof, but it stars Lee Bing.

So I guess Lee Bing lost two co-stars this year. Lee? Eileen Brennan and Lou Reed. Of ones we, again, have already touched on. We just did a tribute to Hal Needham last year at the Oscars.

We did our whole, like our whole movie pick was because they were honoring him. So I guess he did get his honorary Oscar right before he died, but they gave him, that was their big honorary Oscar last year was for Hal Needham. And this past year he passed away. So, but yeah, we did our, our whole, again, as a, as a stunt man and for the kind of stuff that he was doing at the time. Amazing.

Amazing. A lot of the movies he made, I wouldn't say are amazing, but for what he was doing, he was top of his game. That 70s run of action movies and the stuff that he was doing stunts for and then started actually directing them. He was so big in his field, he just took over. I don't know.

That's another one that was kind of an interesting story of somebody that just kind of took over that scene and that part of Hollywood at the time. He was an interesting one to him. What are some of his major stunts? I mean, he did all, like, again, the one that we watched last year was Hooper, and he did pretty much all of that 70s run of Burt Reynolds stuff, like all the Smoky and the Bandit jumps and stuff, all of the Cannonball Run stuff, all of that. Anything that Burt Reynolds did pretty much in the 70s, he was there doing stunts for, and a lot of the times directing the movies as well.

We have Eleanor Parker. She was nominated for Academy Award three times. And I have no idea who she is. She's actually in The Sound of Music. She's the scheming baroness.

But yeah, she was nominated for Oscars in 50, 51, and 55. Wow. Audrey Totter was a radio actress who ended up in The Postman Always Rings Twice. She passed away this year. We have Robin Sachs.

He's one of those that I think out of makeup was actually in like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and did a lot of TV work, but he was one of those that worked a lot in makeup and was on stuff like, you know, Babylon 5 and Star Trek Voyager, but then was also in, like, Ocean's Eleven and Lost World, and he did a lot of stuff that, another one of those that was, like, character actor, but also didn't mind being completely immersed in makeup, and I don't know, that's a whole other breed of actor that really, like, it's bad enough, When you're a character actor and nobody knows who you are. But then when you completely cover up your face. The Doug Joneses. Yeah, basically. It's that whole scenario.

But then again, you could totally go to the store and not have a problem. That's true. That's the best world. Nobody's hounding you then. So I don't know.

There's a few more. But are there any other big ones that you feel like we forgot? I think this was pretty comprehensive. I tried to, again, I wanted to hit at least some of the other ones that nobody's going to pay any attention to on the Oscars. So, you know, we try to hit some of the lesser known people that show up there.

I'm just, my mind is blown that there's a three-time Oscar nominee that I just have never even, like the name's not even familiar. Like the Forgotten Famous is such a fantastic phenomenon. Homework. That's what I get out of doing the show more than anything is like, God, there's more. There's just so much more stuff I need to watch that I can't even get to and There's just so much great stuff out there waiting to be seen.

Joe the dog died. He was just a dog actor. He looked like a golden retriever. What movie? Jesse Stone.

He plays the dog in Deep Throat. That was a scene that got cut out for good reason. Anyway. Are you okay? Yeah.

I was going to move into a Chomps reference. I was working that out. Don't sully the fine name of Chomps. Oh, where we have ended up. Dog actors in deep throat.

Alright, do we think we have addressed the important deaths of the year? Or at least the celebrity deaths. Not that these people are any more important than anyone else, but at least for our movie tie-ins, we've hit a few of the Well-known and lesser-known actors that have passed on. All right. I think that will round this one out, then.

Otherwise, that about does it. We will return next week. Same geek time, same geek fee. Thanks for listening. All the times have come.

But now they're gone Seasons don't fear the reaper Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain We can be like they are Come on baby Don't fear the reaper Baby take my hand Don't fear the reaper We'll be able to fly Don't fear the reaper Baby I'm your Valentine is done. Here but now they're gone Romeo and Juliet Are together in eternity 40,000 men and women every day 40,000 men and women every day And having 40,000 coming. Every day. Take my hand Don't. Fear the reaper We'll be able to fly Don't fear the reaper Baby, I'm your man La, la, la, la, la, la.

Thank you. Up to his heart He put down that gun Came the last light. Of sadness And it was clear. She couldn't go on The door. Was open and.

The wind appeared The candles. Blew and then. Disappeared The curtains flew and. Then he appeared. She ran to him.

They looked back when he said goodbye. She had taken his hand. Have you seen that, this is not, no one died, but was it a boy and his dog? Don Johnson died? No, but I just thought about that.

I've seen that. You're just going with random thoughts now. Yeah, no, well, it was dog related. I don't think Joe was in it, but. I do remember that being quite an interesting movie.

Yeah. I don't know. I think I missed that one. I kind of want to know more about Joe the dog. Was he an air bud or anything like that?

Was he a bud in any movie? I feel like he's a golden retriever. Apparently, find out. This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by the Oddity Studios, with opening music performed by the Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com.

Talk hard!