Charles Napier
April 12 1936 – October 5 2011
Beginning with the dreadful Deep Space, a sci-fi action movie I nonetheless enjoyed if only for the scene where he seduces his co-star by playing sexy bagpipes, but where he also wrestled with a rubber monster back when such things were not post-production CGI but full body costume for some unfortunate and nameless stunt actor, Charles Napier registered on my nerd radar.
He was the voice of an angry redneck general in the Bruce Timm Superman cartoon, played an angry redneck general in Star Trek: DS9, a retired redneck general in the truncated teen wangstathon Roswell - Napier was a regular in my kind of tv and movies and once I knew he was there I started retroactively spotting him everywhere - as a space-hippy in the original Star Trek, the redneck who threatens John Belushi with impromptu dentistry in The Blues Brothers, the desk jockey who sells out the title character in Rambo: First Blood Part 2, the judge in Tom Hanks courtroom drama Philadelphia... oh, and some Russ Meyer movies, too. If you like that sort of thing.
I always liked to see Napier onscreen, to hear that distinctive voice of his even behind animated characters, full of gravitas and a hint of menace - he was a presence as a well as a prolific character actor and I will miss having him around as part of the landscape.
No comments:
Post a Comment