Thursday, July 22, 2010

EARTH ~





JAMES GAMMON
(1940-2010)


If you watched the classic television westerns of the 1960s: "Gunsmoke", "The Wild Wild West" "The Virginian", etc., you know James Gammon. He was in Cool Hand Luke. He didn't last long in Natural Born Killers, which was unusual for him. Everything about his presence and face was about endurance. Nobody was like him and he was like everyone when you saw him in character as an outlaw or a gunman or a regular joe. With a voice that sounded like not a voice, maybe a boot on gravel. On film he'll only grow. From the stage they'll be someone missing.

“This was a guy who could act circles around most other actors,” Sam Shepard said. Gammon was a favorite of the playwright in many of his plays.





photo: butthorn.wordpress.com