July 29, 2011

This man, the terrific character actor, G.D. Spradlin, is not to be confused with this man…

…the terrific character actor, J.T. Walsh. You should not confuse these two men, even though:

1.) They both eschewed first names in favor of initials.
2.) They both inhabited a relatively wide range of characters, but absolutely excelled when playing sleazy assholes.
3.) It's impossible to even find decent pictures of them on the Internet, so you have to use screen-grabs.
4.) As of this past Sunday, when Spradlin passed away at his ranch in San Luis Obispo, CA, they are now both dead.

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Spradlin, you’ll immediately recall once I tell you, played the sleazy asshole Army colonel who, over a lunch spread of roast beef and absurdly large prawns, explains to Martin Sheen’s Capt. Willard why Col. Walter E. Kurtz needs to be taken out of circulation up there in Cambodia.

But even that pivotal turn in one of virtually everybody’s favorite movies has nothing on Spradlin’s performance as the sleazy asshole U.S. Senator (Is there any other kind?) who thinks he’ll be able to bitch-slap little Michael Corleone and his gang of guinea thugs in “The Godfather Part II.”

Boy, does that turn out to be the wrong approach! Spradlin is so convincing here, he almost seems rancid, like his soul has been left out of the icebox for too long.

Spradlin was a fascinating guy. He served in the Air Force during World War II, then became a big-time lawyer for Phillips Petroleum before striking it rich on his own with a couple of oil wells. Only then, at the age of 40, did he try his hand at acting, and he immediately started winning roles on such TV shows as “Dragnet” and “Bonanza,” which eventually led to scads of work on the big screen. (You might also remember him as the sleazy asshole Jesus freak football coach in “North Dallas Forty.”)

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Of course, nobody outside of Spradlin’s friends and co-workers knew anything about his distinctive career path while he was still alive. Big-time character actors experience a very odd sort of fame. Certainly, far more people said, “Oh! I know that guy!” when they saw Walsh’s obituary in the paper (he succumbed to a sudden heart attack in 1998) than said, “Oh, dear God! J.T. Walsh died!” And even I wasn’t completely aware of Spradlin’s name the other day, when I glimpsed his photo under a headline containing the words, “has died.” I knew initials were involved somehow, but my brain immediately coughed up “J.T. Somebody” when I saw the picture.

That’s simultaneously too bad and really not so bad at all. If you can immediately recognize an actor but have no clue what his or her name is, and said actor fills you with a particular emotion on first sight, then that actor is doing something right.

You’re so convinced these performers actually are the people they’re portraying on the screen, it never even occurs to you to try to find out more about them once the movie is over. As far as you and I were concerned, then, Spradlin and Walsh really were sleazy assholes, even though by all accounts they weren’t. And that’s a workable definition of a great actor, if you ask me.

So now, all we have left is M. Emmet Walsh, who should not be confused with J.T. Walsh or G.D. Spradlin.

Look him up. You'll recognize him.

Paul Tatara