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Weekend Discussion Thread: Favorite Actor/Actress in a MSTed Movie Who Also Did Good WorkDuring this week’s episode guide discussion there were a lot of folks who expressed admiration and sadness for Lon Cheney Jr., lamenting how far he had fallen from his Wolfman days.
So let’s open this topic up. Which actor or actress in a MSTed movie do you genuinely admire for the good work they did, even though they also did a MSTed movie? My pick is easy: George Reeves, who created one of the most iconic TV characters of all time. Your pick? 149 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: Favorite Actor/Actress in a MSTed Movie Who Also Did Good Work”Commenting at Satellite News
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Guy Williams “I Was A Teenaage Werewolf” starred in two great TV series, ZORRO and LOST IN SPACE. For awhile he also starred with Michael Landon (also in Werewolf) on BONANZA.
Since no one has mentioned him yet, I’ll go with Jack Palance. Mainly for his Oscar winning performance as Curly in City Slickers, Boss Carl Grissom in Batman, and, of course, Ripley’s Believe It (breath) Or Not.
Eddie Deezen. He was great in “1941”.
One more, since Jack Palance hasn’t been mentioned yet, I’ll put him down. Huh? He’s been said before? Like 10 times? Sorry, maybe I should read other peoples comments before putting mine down.
I have to second all the actors mentioned, and I can only think of one other that I haven’t seen mentioned: Club Scum emcee Daran Norris, who played court-appointed attorney Cliff McCormack on Veronica Mars, and is a prolific voice actor, most notably (for me) voicing Cosmo on Fairly OddParents.
Peter Breck in “Shock Corridor” Sometimes shown on TCM.
Since Gene Hackman, Lloyd Bridges and Ann-Margaret have all been mentioned, and don’t need mentioning again (oops), I’ll go with:
Gunther Simon, who was a huge star in East Germany when he did “First Spaceship on Venus”
Forrest Tucker and Janet Munro from “Crawling Eye”
and don’t forget Doodles Weaver
@ Mark J Hansen (#105): Really? Cosmo was the emcee in “Hobgoblins”? That’s hilarious.
@105 – Dont forget Daran Norris went on to do the voice of Spottswoode in Team America.
Aside from those mentioned I would include the two Fawlty Towers alums from The Deadly Bees – Michael Gwynn (Lord Melbury) & James Cossins (Walt the fake hotel inspector).
Oh, and John Hurt as Mrs Hargrove……….
Lord Melbury rocks
Donald Pleasance is Sam Loomis, as everyone knows, but I think his most interesting role might be as the murderous rogue William Hare (of Burke and Hare fame) in The Flesh and the Fiends.
Yikes–three Stanley Kubrick connections I totally forgot:
Joe Turkel (small role in “The Killing,” Pte Arnaud in “Paths of Glory,” and Lloyd the Bartender in “The Shining”) How many actors can say they’ve worked for Stanley Kubrick *and* Bert I Gordon?
Keenan Wynn (Col. Bat Guano in “Dr Strangelove”)
and
Gary Lockwood (Frank Poole in “2001”)
Since so many great names have already been given, I was gonna go with Janet Munro from The Crawling Eye, but then I realized pretty much all she did was Darby O’Gill and the Little People. Still, she was really cute til her life went in the crapper. Sooo, I’ll go with that beach in The Crawling Hand. The one where the Swedish girl changes clothes behind the rock. That’s been in a lot of great films.
@PrezGAR..Look at #98..Someone already did. :-)
John “T. Voice” Carradine probably did more than he will ever be credited for, and yet can be credited for more than he probably did, which makes him an easy favorite in my book. His legacy from beginning to end is chockablock with memorable performances in all sorts of terrible, grainy movies, not to mention the mess of Carradine successions you could count as “good work.”
Lee Van Cleef, Bob Hauk in “Escape From New York” and of course “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”
I’d go with Clint Eastwood but there are a lot of other choices just as good.
I’m not surprised that actors choose to work in bad films. Most actors are not stars who have so much money they can pick and choose one or to roles every two or three years. 1) Money 2)Pad the resume. A couple of good movies and 20 bad ones looks better than 2 movies in 5 years. Producers/Directors are more likely to hire working actors. 3) It takes a knack to tell if a script is going to end up as a good movie. You could read 20 scripts and the one that you think are terrible end up being great (or bad but successful.) See Star Wars. Many of the actors took the job for the money, assuming that no one would remember it a year or two later. 4) The director and editor have as much or more control over the final product than the actors. Most people hiring actors don’t hold an actor responsible for a bad director. 5) Time. If a known bad director offers you a lot of money for a day or two of work, why not take his/her money? 6) Experience. Clint Eastwood needed an acting resume when he took this role.
James Earl Jones, anyone?
My answer is easy: Little Richard.
I don’t know; I’ve always enjoyed Harvey B. Dunn.
Wait, which thread are we doing again?
If I can expand to include CT’ed movies, Grant Williams (Doomsday Machine, Oozing Skull) was also The Incredible Shrinking Man, a movie that effectively creeped me out as a kid.
Roy Thinnes
He was a total badass in The Invaders. He would whip out a revolver and probably plug 4-5 aliens a show.
Also sadly starred in the excellent but unpicked up pilot, The Norliss Tapes (which deserves to get the Rifftrax treatment someday)
John Banner ’nuff said.
How about Clayton Moore, from COMMANDO CODY? He was The Lone Ranger!
Gene Hackman for sure, but I can’t believe nobody has yet mentioned James Best of “The Dukes of Hazzard” fame!
Richard Carlson was epic in “I Led Three Lives.” Some of the A-list actors like Hackman and David Warner still did good work with B and C grade material, but others just phoned it in, while still others lost their last shreds of dignity by even showing up in total cheese like Warrior of the Lost World. (Pleasence: do the brits ever turn down work?) Reb Brown, OTOH, was one who was just plain painful as the lead in Space Mutiny, but actually acted well in Uncommon Valor.
Well, i’m so late to this party, all my choices have been named, but i’ll go with Ian McShane, and as a throw in i didn’t see mentioned, Tia Carrera. Oh yeah, and that Paper Chase guy….Robert Ginty.
#73 Neptune Man, no you are not alone. Bela Lugosi is one of my favorites as well, and a job is a job (as we all know all to well these days and remember that much of his work was done during the Great Depression). Also nods to Raul Julia.
@126 – Raul Julia was a good actor, who was just stuck in weird snooty projects in the early-80’s from people who had only seen him onstage. (OATMB came out one year before Coppola decided to put him in all his Zoetrope movies starting with “One From the Heart”.)
To this day, I still defend his work in Street Fighter, or “The world domination of Gomez Addams”.
And yes, Gene Hackman IS a good actor–even if he was embarrassingly hamming it up but good in Marooned/Space Travelers–and you just sort of have respect for Jim Backus, even if he was only doing Angel’s Revenge to pay the doctor bills near the end. :(
Bob-o’s back!
Okay, I am going with John Phillip Law. In “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming!” he played Kolchin, a character whom you couldn’t help but like and feel sorry for. And “OF COURSE!!” I can’t neglect to agree with the majority on here on the late, great Mr. Julia.
Oh, Tommy Kirk from Catalina Caper was great in The Shaggy Dog and The Absent-Minded Professor.
I vote for Trumpy, since he became ALF. Didn’t he??
No votes for Lassie? I’m disappointed in the lot of you. ;)
I should also put in a good word for Pat Buttram since it’s not likely anyone will favorite him, especially after what happened with him and TV’s Frank in Second-Banana Heaven, but the man fit his role every time.
Gordon Scott (who is the best actor to ever portray Tarzan) for sure gets my nod.
My pick is easy: Darren McGavin from “Hangar 18,” who played both Kolchak and the Old Man in “A Christmas Story.”
Thanks, Troy(134); I have to applaud whenever Darren McGavin is mentioned.
My other thought of neglected MST talent was Francis X Bushman, who played the Old Guy President of Phantom Planet. He was pretty good as Messala in Ben Hur (even the silent version is a classic).
I always felt that if Gamera had gotten himself a better script and a child sidekick who wasn’t annoying, he would have had a better reputation as an actor.
If i had to pick one it would definitely be Raul Julia, who i have seen bring real vitality to all sorts of schlock, though he’s been in some good stuff too. The way he breathes life into some of the crap he’s been in will just never cease to impress me. Though Beverly Garland was a close second as far as having an amazing ability to make crap movies almost riveting.
But just to mention the most unforgettable non-mst moments of some others…
John Carradine as the Great Owl in Secret of Nimh will always stick with me big time.
And Brian Blessed (who, although he has been in some real blockbuster hits like Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and well-known stuff like Black Adder) will always be more dear to me for his performance as leader of the winged dudes in the movie version of Flash Gordon from 1980, which if you haven’t seen is really worth a watch – soundtrack from Queen, lots of great actors and just a goofy, fun, over-the-top awesome movie.
I also liked Brian Blessed in a Dr. Who episode
as an alien lord (who actually got the girl), one of
the Doctor’s (Colin Baker) companions (Peri somebody)
a faux American, but cute.
Arch Hall Jr made a fantastic film called THE SADIST which is based on the Charlie Starkweather killings. He is brilliant in the film.. a real unhinged performance. I’m also partial to Wild Guitar as well.
Lloyd Bridges, anyone?
**Eddie Deezen. He was great in “1941?.**
He was even better in “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “Midnight Madness”.
Basil Rathbone was the first name that came to mind.
Then I remembered Ricardo Montalban, who was the (uncredited) voice of Claudius in HAMLET. Who doesn’t love him in Star Trek (tv show and movie), Fantasy Island, or Chrysler commercials?
#111: Blast, one more Stanley Kubrick connection…
James Earl Jones played one of the pilots on Slim Picken’s out-of-control B-52 in Dr. Strangelove; he gets about 3 lines, but it’s him alright.
I’ll put my vote in for Bela Lugosi; he actually was a very effective actor and was a romantic lead(!?) in the silent film days back in Hungary. He was great in the Universal horror films with Boris Karloff…but drug addition eventually took it’s toll.
Old Man: “This is the third great gift; and the first great lesson…”
Crow: “Audition for every part you can!”
Roy Thinnes. The only thing I saw him outside of Diamond Head and General Hospital, was in Law and Order. Not a major character but was pretty good.
Clu Gulager. Even in the MST films I think he’s a pretty decent actor. He’s still around too.
Martin Balsam was also one of the editors in All The President’s Men, and obviously has some good acting chops. What he was doing in Mitchell, I’ll never know.
Who else can c&@$ bigger than the legendary jack palance? In fact, he’s one of the only few actors who can turn anything, including his own… *cough* thing… Into gold!
Watching American Bandstand,then Soul Train on Saturday mornings and dancing like happy epileptics was a great way to start the weekend. It had been always following a slumber party at the friend or cousin’s house. Aretha Franklin singing “Rock Steady” will be the first one I remember-I concerned five and would hula-hoop like Alvin on speed. Does anyone remember “the Bump”? The Afro-Sheen commercials were so fly. Even when Don Cornelius’s funeral is entirely private,I expect there’ll be a memorial/tribute show for him. Singers ought to be those who is capable of doing with dignity.It will be best to have people that appeared on Soul Train during its peak years. Any ideas,hussies?
Devastated. I did not miss a show, wherever I was, for my entire childhood. That’s where we SHONE. Every other dance show since was just trying to keep up.
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