Ricardo Montalban RIP

who remembers the Spy Magazine TV special in the late-80's (hosted by a pre-sitcom Jerry Seinfeld) where they did that experiment to gauge the importance of celebrities?...to wit, a hidden camera was placed in the ceiling of an art gallery, which is teeming with patrons...from a door in the corner of the room, Ricardo Montalban enters the space...one by one, the gallery-goers crowd around him until he has the attention of the entire throng....from another door diagonally opposite the first one, a person is seen wheeling in a cart of donuts...one person makes the move from Ricardo to the donuts, and another person, until ultimately the entire group is crowded around the donut cart while Ricardo Montalban stands alone in his corner...what a sport!

Nicholas Meyer's commentary track for The Wrath of Khan is unexpectedly smart! He's an erudite man, alluding to Chekhov (the playwright not the doctor) and O'Neil, doesn't end sentences with prepositions, and does an elegant riff at the end on the perils of being remembered for your most popular work.

On Montalban: "This guy shoulda been playing King Lear and here he was on `Fantasy Island' with one hand tied behind his back, his mind a million miles away."

It's a great commentary, one of my favorites. I enjoy the moment when he talks about being nervous when asking Montalban to tone down his overall performance except for key moments. only to be surprised at how appreciative Montalban was for the direction. Good reminder of how the directing/acting dynamic can meet in the middle just so.

Ha, well, I see now I already said that upthread. One more time etc.

Unfortunately, for me RM's most memorable role involved the solemn intonation of the words "rich Corinthian leather" in describing the 1975 Chrysler Cordoba.

He was great in the Apes movies

*looks up preposition*

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/ending-prepositions.aspx

argue with the writer, alfred, im hopeless with this stuff

prepositions are great things to end sentences with!

thanks for the tip on the commentary though, i'll check it out!

"ADMIRAL Kirk! AD-miral."

"I wish to go on... hurting you."

A marvelous interview (it hasn't been cited here before). He discusses exposition, every actor's horror; the travails of being a Mexican actor in the biz; and about making a living. "You're only an actor when you're acting. Never turn down a role unless it offends your moral principles."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUuIvPbMFjE

Now that's sharp.

whoa at mention of Gene Lockhart (big Orson Welles hater and reactionary).

I heard Teri Garr say she was told the same by Nicholson. "Teri, actors act."

born 100 years ago today