Archives for Barry Wurst

It’s with great sadness that I write this, a brief mention that Natasha Richardson, a wonderful actress of film and and stage, the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and wife of Liam Neeson, died on Wednesday. As a stage actress, her work was astonishing, and she arguably received the most acclaim from her work on the London and New York theater scene. As a film actress, she is probably and sadly best known to American audiences as Ralph Fiennes’ annoying fiance in Main in Manhattan and the love interest in the remake of The Parent Trap. If you really want to see why she was such a remarkable actress, look at her playing the title role in Paul Schrader’s Patty Hearst, in which she embodied a complex and widely unloved public figure. Or, watch her in The Handmaid’s Tale, an equally controversial film that, like Patty Hearst, received mixed reviews from critics but her performances in both films were widely and deservedly praised. Finally, in the thriller The Comfort of Strangers, also by director Schrader, cast opposite Christopher Walken, Helen Mirren and Rupert Everett, Richardson is outstanding once again in one of the creepiest and most underrated cinematic mind games of the ’90’s. She is survived by her husband, Liam and their two children, Micheal and Daniel Neeson. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family.

One of the great ones died today, and by that, I don’t merely mean one of the great Hollywood movie stars, but one of the great men and someone who made a difference. Paul Newman is so many things to so many people, even a list seems both inevitable and pointless. Yes, he was a huge movie star, with a career that lasted for decades, but this was only in a small part of his life overall. Newman was a film legend who could really act, took numerous chances with lots of tricky, complex roles and was enormously accomplished on stage as well as the big screen. Yes, he won an Academy award for acting in a Martin Scorsese picture, but he also gave dozens of other performances that were as good, if not even better, in films that range from excellent to being widely considered classics of American cinema. Yes, he had his own salad dressing, founded by his Newman’s Own company in 1982, but have you tried everything else that company produces (best chocolate-chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever tasted) and did you know the profits go straight to charity? Yes, Newman was an auto racer, but did you know that he won a race at the age of 70 (!) and that his introducing his friend and co-star, Tom Cruise, to the sport lead to Days of Thunder? Yes, he was the voice of a car in Pixar’s Cars, but did you know he acted for the Coen Brothers, Alfred Hitchcock, George Roy Hill, Sam Mendes, Sidney Lumet, Martin Ritt, Robert Benton, AND Robert Altman (to name just a few)? Here are a few other things that not everyone knows about Paul Newman:

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In a world…where Don LaFontaine is The King of Voiceovers, movie trailers were always so much more exciting. Sadly, LaFontaine just recently passed away and left a legacy that exists in countless film and televison ads. His career, which spans decades and covers numerous projects, is best remembered for the wonderfully serious (and, occasionally, not so serious) voice over narrations he provided to hundreds, heck, THOUSANDS, of movie trailers. Fans of Coming Attractions previews know his voice all too well and, for a few highlights, check out his work after the break.

Terminator 2
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWutJqsk0IE[/youtube]

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Last August, Screen Geek Josh and I were wandering the endless corridors of Comic Con and we ran into Stan Winston. This was my first time at Comic Con and, in fact, it was during my first couple of hours there that, after growing glassy-eyed with geeky overkill, endless booths, movie promos and fanboy paraphernalia galore, Josh and I happened to spot the Skinwalkers promotion. In front of a tall booth (hidden by a black curtain and containing a mock-up of the film’s monster, for the brave who peeked inside) sat a friendly, older man with a lean, white beard and unassuming glasses. I said to Josh, “That’s Stan Winston!” I immediately began to bore Josh with everything I knew about Winston and Josh, keeping his cool, matter of factly asked me, “are you going to talk to him?” I said, “I can’t!” I was so taken aback by seeing him, I told Josh I needed a minute to come up with something to say, perhaps buy something for him to sign, and maybe ask him what the status of Jurassic Park IV was. We walked around the convention, came back a few minutes later and found Mr. Winston swamped with fans. I thought, oh well, I’ll get a chance to talk to him later. I never did.

Four years ago, I had the privilege of meeting Lance Henriksen. I told him that I loved his performance in Pumpkinhead; his eyes lit up and he said, “Thanks! You know, that was Stan Winston’s first film as a director!” It’s very telling that, of all the things he could have said about that film, the first thing that came to mind was Stan Winston.

Winston had that effect on actors, filmmakers and his countless fans. They LOVED him. He had a reputation as an approachable, kind and effortlessly inventive genius who loved movies as much as the work he put into them.

This was a man who made movie magic, time and time again. His work as a visual effects creator, designer and make-up artist are among the most iconic and convincing in film history. His contributions to The Terminator, Jurassic Park, Aliens, Batman Returns, A.I., Terminator 2 and Interview With the Vampire are classic and astonishing. Even the work he did on bad films, like The Island of Dr. Moreau, Heartbeeps, The Wiz, Invaders From Mars and Pearl Harbor, is so incredible, it makes the films worth seeing, if only to view his work (particularly Dr. Moreau, which has some of the best make-up I’ve ever seen).

Winston’s extensive filmography has titles that make you feel like you’re a kid and cause one to smile sheepishly: Galaxy Quest, Edward Scissorhands, Congo, Starman, Mousehunt, and The Monster Squad– all have Stan Winston's fingerprints on them.

I now know exactly what I should have said to Mr. Winston; I simply should have walked up to him, shook his hand and said, “Thank You”.