The ever-enlarging sphere of lies in that episode makes it a classic, but one of Mahoney’s lines especially stayed with me:
“I gave Buzz Aldrin his nickname. Everyone thought it was because he flew fast. Nah. It’s because he was afraid of bees.”
Holy crap! I never realized that was him. A versatile character actor indeed.
There’s an interesting story behind that gig. Mahoney was hired as a last-minute replacement for the original guest star, who suddenly abandoned the production midway through. According to writer Ken Levine, he just walked off the set and never returned. Levine never said who the original guest star was, but there’s speculation that it was Don Knotts, who had problems performing in front of a live audience. Though Levine says the original guest left only after the dress rehearsal, I think they actually did some shooting that day, because the final version with Mahoney has some very awkwardly framed scenes that look like forced reshoots. (There’s a blog somewhere that discusses this in detail, with screenshots, though I can’t find it at the moment.)
While I remember him best as Martin Crane, I also loved him as the antagonist military officer in The Manhattan Project.
A great actor! Loved him on Frasier - he never disappointed. He also had small but fine roles as Clint Eastwood’s Secret Service boss in In the Line of Fire, and as a Federal judge in Suspect (one of Liam Neeson’s first American movies).
May he rest in peace.
And the guy who played “Bulldog” is also in that movie!
:eek: I’ve watched that movie a bunch of times and never recognized Dan Butler as one of the SWAT guys! Awesome!!
If he didn’t out himself in life, then I think it’s the height of crassness to discuss it either way now that he’s gone. This goes for any celeb, (or person in general, I suppose). Unless you find old footage of them doing gay porn or some other “proof” (and even that wouldn’t necessarily prove it vs “gay for pay”), just let it go. He was a good actor with some beloved roles, he kept his personal life private, so just freaking respect that.
About his being british, when Frasier started, I recall an article where he still had problems with certain words in an American accent, like “Wensday” which he said he tended to say like it’s spelled “Wed-nes-day”. Also he used to help Jane Leeves with her Daphne accent, as she was playing from another part of England than her character, and her character was actually from where he was originally from. This was decades ago, so if you want a cite, get a time machine…