I vote for top posh 60s thespian totty and two-time Oscar winner Glenda Jackson, who made an abrupt career volte-face in 1992 - not just a volte-face, but also an about turn - and became a Labour MP. Her political career has so far been modest, but she has integrity, and she remains an MP to this day, twenty years later.
Which makes her probably the only MP to (a) appear naked in a Ken Russell film (b) guest-star as Cleopatra with Morcambe and Wise and (c) appear on The Muppet Show as a mad pirate. Dennis Skinner has done none of those things.
Peter Weller - Stage Actor, member of The Actors Studio, became known initially for playing villains (various television roles, the film Firstborn), moved on to become a favorite in science fiction (Buckaroo Banzai, Robocop, Screamers, TV’s “Odyssey 5” and “Enterprise”), went back to villainous roles on TV (“Dexter”, “24”), meanwhile picking up his Masters in Roman and Renaissance Art at Syracuse, where he is an associate professor. He balanced all of this out by banging Ali MacGraw, Barbara Streisand, and Sela Ward.
Peter Weller’s title at Syracuse University isn’t associate professor, since he isn’t even a regular professor. His title is probably adjunct instructor. He doesn’t have a Ph.D. and it appears that he doesn’t even live around there most of the year. He got a master’s from Syracuse in 2004 and is finally getting a doctorate at UCLA this year:
That may well be, but if he actually “got at” Sela Ward, I would say that he can safely claim his title of “One Hell Of A Lucky S.O.B.” without any serious dissent.
How about construction worker/dance instructor/cab driver/nightclub singer/professional boxer Charles Durning, who made ends meet as a bartender and a security guard before leaving it all behind to earn nine Emmy nominations and counting, years after hitting Omaha Beach on D-Day, years after working in a burlesque house?
And who can forget craggy-faced supporting actor Lance Henriksen - famous for his appearances in The Terminator, Aliens, and Millennium, plus dozens upon dozens of others - who has or had a sideline as a master potter? I don’t know if he still makes pots (the website is long gone). What nightmares did he see as the clay span around on the potter’s wheel? Spinning, forever spinning.
I tell you, if I had one of Lance Henrikson’s pots I would be unwilling to drink from it and wary of storing food in it. In fact, if I had one of Lance Henrikson’s pots I would be tempted to give it back. I would place it on his doorstep in the middle of the night and leave quietly. And when I woke up the next morning it would be as if I had been reborn. That sunrise would be the most vivid sunrise.
And as, Avery Bullock, the amoral, possibly psychopathic Deputy Director of the CIA in American Dad. "Do you have any Gatorade? I seem to have left all my electrolytes with your daughter"
Mark Hamill. He did some voices for a few animated shows, and some live-action TV, before he did Star Wars. And afterwards, the part that took off was… the voice work. He’s one of the premiere voice artists in the world now; his version of the Joker from the Batman animated universe is legendary. He’s occasionally shown up in live-action footage for video games, most infamously the Wing Commander series, but Hamill turns up in the voice credits for so many things you start to wonder if he ever sleeps.
I sincerely hope he likes having legions of nerd fans, because he’s never going to get rid of them.
On a further reflection I think I’ve come up with a new television horror anthology series. I call it Lance Henriksen: Kiln In the Name Of. At the beginning of each episode Lance Henriksen shows us one of his pots, and tells us - the audience - about the horrible fate that befell the original owner of the pot. And at the end he delivers a spooky send-off line, and we see that he’s making another pot. He keeps souls inside the pots. Fresh souls.
And then we get a half-hour story in which some poor sap takes delivery of one of Lance’s pots, and then things go from bad to worse. There are numerous sinister ways that pottery can hurt people. Bullying, for example. You ever been bullied by pottery? The constant abusive remarks and general unhelpfulness. It just mounts up. And if you fight back, the pottery just sits there with an innocent expression on its face. “Me?”, it says. “I’m just a pot. I have pencils in my head, or possibly cinnamon. Do you want to try some of my cinnamon? Do you want to try the cinnamon challenge? Go on.”
Remember that film, The Abominable Dr Phibes? With the shrinking frog mask, and the impaling flying unicorn head? I suggest you see it immediately. Those two things could easily have been made out of pottery. Also, pottery can (a) get very hot (b) fall on top of your head (c) shatter (d) emit noxious fumes. And that’s without covering the horrible possibilities of liquid clay.
Yeah, imagine if Lance Henriksen could literally conjure a monster out of clay, and have it go around town potterising his enemies, or people he just doesn’t like. It would be like House of Wax, but with clay.
Ryan Reynolds started off playing goofy characters in classics such as “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place” and “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder” and has moved on to super-hunk roles in X-Men and Green Lantern.
That doesn’t do justice to Mr. Welles. He started long before Citizen Kane – he did intriguing Shakespeare productions, went on to Mercury Theater on the Air (of which War of the Worlds was only one part), and was the voice of The Shadow. He produced, directed, and starred i n some great films, but had problems with the Hollywood establishment and other things, so many of them got buried or weren’t released. What we did see – things like Touch of Evil or MacBeth – were great. In the meantime, we supported himself with some wonderfully atrocious roloes (Casino Royale*), read Shakespeare on The Dean Martin Show, fer cryin’ out loud, caught a lot of grief for messing up a magic trick on The Tonight Show, appeared in some good stuff (The Muppet Movie) and some odd stuff (F for Fake), announced Heavy Metal bands, and shilled for wine (not beer) – “We will drink no wine before its time.” One hell of a career, and still underappreciated.
Well going in the other direction, there’s Catherine 1 of Russia (NOT Catherine the Great who was Catherine ll), a Lithuanian peasant and camp follower who was the mistress of several Russian soldiers until she ended up with Peter the Great. After his death she succeeded him was declared Empress in her own right.
