FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

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Showing posts with label Kevin Smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kevin Smith. Show all posts

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Remembering and appreciating someone who captivated me as a kid, and then later proved the maxim about what's old becoming new -and popular- again! Actor Michael Parks, from 'Then Came Bronson' and so much more...


"A Harley Roadster, a bedroll, a lonely stretch of highway: Jim Bronson (Michael Parks) is traveling where the road and the day take him, trying to make sense of things after the suicide of his close friend (Martin Sheen). He doesn't go far along a magnificent stretch of California's coastal Big Sur before he meets Temple Brooks (Bonnie Bedelia), a runway bride just as adrift as Jim is. Together, they'll ride that Harley all the way to New Orleans. Together, they might find what they're looking for."



Trending at Hallandale Beach Blog: What's old becomes new -and popular! again! Actor Michael Parks is finally getting the overdue respect and attention he was due; from 'Then Came Bronson' to the 2012 actor in demand in Hollywood


 
Then Came Bronson (Intro) S1 (1969)

 
"Then Came Bronson" NBC Fall Preview for 1969, narrated by Hugh Downs
Michael Parks as 'Jim Bronson,' a former San Francisco newspaper reporter turned motorcycle-driving vagabond, seeking to make sense of his own life and connect-the-dots in an ever-changing world around him. 
Shown above in still of video, the delightful and beguiling Bonnie Bedelia. 😍😍😍😍
I hate to report that my cinematic muse #michaelparks has passed away. Michael was, and will likely forever remain, the best actor I've ever known. I wrote both #RedState and @tuskthemovie FOR Parks, I loved his acting so much. He was, hands-down, the most incredible thespian I ever had the pleasure to watch perform. And Parks brought out the absolute best in me every time he got near my set. From the moment I saw him steal the opening scene of #fromdusktildawn at an advance screening at the Sunset 5 back in the mid-90's, I said to @samosier "Could you imagine what it must be like to work with a Yoda of acting like that guy? I gotta write for him one day." It took me 15 years but my dream came true on Red State (for which Parks won Best Actor at the @sitgesfestival) and then again years later with #tusk. Only Michael Parks could have delivered the line "Is man indeed a walrus at heart?" and make it scary as fuck. My favorite memory of Michael is watching him and #johnnydepp act with and at each other, like a couple of dueling wizards, in their shared scene in Tusk. Parks was in Heaven that day, sharing the screen with another brilliant actor and creating an unforgettable performance. He elevated any flick or TV show he was in and elevated every director he ever acted for. I was so fucking blessed to have worked with this bonafide genius. But really, I was just lucky to have known him at all. My heart goes out to James (Michael's son), Oriana (Michael's wife), Quentin Tarantino (Michael's biggest fan) and any movie or music lover who was ever dazzled by the talents of Michael Parks. Farewell, old friend. I'll see you farther along... #KevinSmith #actor #genius #rip #walrusyes
A post shared by Kevin Smith (@thatkevinsmith) on




A confession: this TV show from 1969 remains one of my ten favorite all-time American TV shows. I was only eight years old when this first aired on TV, yet I was smart enough even then to realize that THIS is what compelling acting was. 
I completely believed everything Michael Parks said and did in his Jim Bronson persona. 
It ALL made sense to me.

 Especially the way that he would use the anger or upset that other people he encountered along the road had kept bottled up and carried with them for years, like an open sore, and inevitably find a timely way to turn that anger and hurt or resentment on its ear by making that other character see that maybe-just-maybe, they and their own choices (or lack of action or emotional support) actually bore a larger share of the blame for their particular present misfortune than they were willing to acknowledge.
That was especially the case when another family member who was the person being blamed for the present unhappy circumstances.
Someone almost inevitably needed to forgive someone else, but first, they had to forgive themselves! #kaboom! 
(Presaging Michael Landon in Highway to Heaven? Yep!) 

They are the very qualities that so thoroughly captivated me as a kid in 1969 -and all my friends at Fulford Elementary School in North Miami Beach. Though I was just eight years old when this TV show, yet I was smart enough to realize even then that THIS is what compelling acting was. 
I watched every episode religiously every Wednesday night on NBC-TV, and was thoroughly captivated!

 If VCRs and DVRs had existed then, I surely would have watched the episodes over-and-over trying to make sure that I had drained every nuance and anecdote I could out of it before I went to school the next day at school.
Though you may find it hard to believe now, my friends and I talked about the show the next day in detail like I later would talk about sports and politics -with enthusiasm and great curiosity about what others thought about what we'd all seen, and most importantly, what it all really meant.
Like it was philosophy!

For those of you who never saw the show in the first place and who'd like to know more details about it, see this Wiki entry which seems pretty accurate to me:
"Curiously, though the opening promises a journey of self-discovery, the premise of each episode is that Bronson enters someone else's life at a crucial point and acts as a catalyst for change."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Then_Came_Bronson

Yes, but that's one of the main things I loved about the show!

I haven't always seen eye-to-eye with film director Kevin Smith on various subjects or even liked all of his films, but the words and qualities he uses above in his Instagram post to describe his friend and film muse Michael Parks could not possibly be more spot-on to me.

This show is when I first fell in LOVE with Bonnie Bedelia!  The first time I saw her, when she was just twenty-one, I was smitten like a kitten! 😍😍😍😍

In retrospect, I sometimes think that the entire time I was at IU, I was looking for a Bonnie Bedelia doppelgänger, hoping that one of my smart and clever friends at the IU sororities which would have strong competitors for that Bonnie comparison -Tri-Delt, Delta Gamma 
and Kappa Kappa Gamma and Kappa Alpha Theta-  would come thru for me.
Nope. 
I was set-up with lots of amazing sorority "sisters" of friends that were close to capturing her spirit and personality, but ultimately, alas, no cigar. 

The talented and lovely Leighton Meester reminded me of the sweetness of a young Bonnie from the first time I ever saw her in NBC's cute sci-fi show "Surface" in 2010 when she was 19. Now, every time I see BB I think of LM and vice-versa.

BLAKE LIVELY AND LEIGHTON MEESTER OF GOSSIP GIRL, 

ROLLING STONE 1075, MARCH 2009.

You scream, I scream, we all scream for... Gossip Girl. Photo by Terry Richardson.

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/8818/52599 


 Me in 2011: Michael Parks -What's old becomes new again!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/michael-parks-whats-old-becomes-new.html




9/5/11 LA Times: Michael Parks goes from nowhere to go-to guy The actor remembers when his phone rarely rang. Now he's coveted by directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith.

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Dave
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Monday, September 5, 2011

Michael Parks -What's old becomes new again! Actor finally getting overdue respect; from 'Then Came Bronson' to the 2012 actor in demand in Hollywood

Trending at Hallandale Beach Blog: What's old becomes new -and popular! again! Actor Michael Parks is finally getting the overdue respect and attention he was due; from 'Then Came Bronson' to the 2012 actor in demand in Hollywood
Then Came Bronson (Intro) S1 (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYsztoaU9Ls
"Then Came Bronson" NBC Fall Preview for 1969, narrated by Hugh Downs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW79P5jLoU4&t=9s

 Michael Parks as 'Jim Bronson,' a former San Francisco newspaper reporter turned motorcycle-driving vagabond, seeking to make sense of his own life and connect-the-dots in an ever-changing world around him. Shown above in still of video, the delightful Bonnie Bedelia.
A confession: this TV show from 1969 is one of my ten favorite all-time American TV shows.
I was only eight years old when this was on TV, yet I was smart enough even then to realize that THIS is what compelling acting was.
And it's when I first fell in LOVE with Bonnie Bedelia!

I watched every episode religiously and if VCRs and DVRs had existed back then, I would have watched it over-and-over trying to make sure that I had drained every nuance and anecdote I could out of it before I went to school the next day at Fulford Elementary in North Miami Beach.

My friends and I talked about it the next day in detail like I later would talk about sports and politics -with enthusiasm and great curiosity about what others thought about what we'd all seen and what it all meant.

For those of you who never saw the show in the first place and want to know more details about it, see this Wiki entry which seems pretty accurate to me:

I last wrote about Then Came Bronson in a post on July 23, 2010 that I titled,
In this part of Broward County, being sandbagged is a good thing! Tropical Storm Bonnie; my Leighton Meester: Bonnie Bedelia analogy is proved!

I strongly suggest you read that to get a better appreciation for what's what, and not just because you'll see why my Bonnie Bedelia:Leighton Meester analogy is so apt!
(If you agree with me about this, feel free to give me the credit!)

So, all that said, early this morning while most of you were already asleep, I let my fingers do the walking on the LA Times website -an excellent site in my opinion, and I get a couple of their daily newsletter, too- to look for the latest Times story, column or editorial on the effort by the LA business and entertainment establishment to get the California legislature to do their bidding and grease the skids so that an NFL team can be in Los Angeles at a new stadium for AEG -the Farmer's Field project- financed with tax dollars.
I know, hard to believe in this economy, right?

Well, I'll be posting some thoughts soon on the never ending melodrama of the NFL returning to LA, as I've got quite a collection of stories from the Times and elsewhere that have helped me make sense out of some things that weren't clicking in my brain before, but while looking for that story, I struck gold.
Yes, there's still gold in California if you know where to look.

Gold in the form of a very interesting story in today's Times on actor Michael Parks and how a litany of younger film directors have either finally gotten a chance to work with him after always wanting to, or, having just discovered him for the first times themselves, are dazzled and can't think straight and MUST HAVE HIM.
Not a Michael Parks type of actor, Michael Parks, the genuine article.

Trust me, when I saw that out-of-the-blue, I nearly jumped out of my chair!!!

And yes, once again I fired-up YouTube to see what got set in motion after Martin Sheen's character, a friend of Jim Branson, goes kerplunk off a certain bridge in Cali.
Dominoes fall in all sorts of interesting ways...

Los Angeles Times
Michael Parks goes from nowhere to go-to guy
The actor remembers when his phone rarely rang. Now he's coveted by directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith.
By Susan King, Los Angeles Times
September 5, 2011

Writer-director Kevin Smith describes Michael Parks as "porn for actors. If you like actors and you discover Michael Parks in a scene and you have never seen him before, your brain explodes. He will take a page of dialogue and deliver it in a different way than anybody else."
Read the rest of the article at:

And what about that great photo of him in the article, too?
Wow, he looks like he could play Jack Wagner's father.

If you hadn't heard the news yet, Jack Wagner is getting married to one of America's -and my- former stone-cold secret crushes: the talented, beautiful and beguiling Heather Locklear. And she really seems happy -after lots of recent personal upset- which makes me happy for her, too.

Good to finally see some people in Hollywood that I've always liked getting their fair share of some positive karma for a change!

Speaking of motorcycles, you know whose song would be great to have playing in a film scene of an attractive young woman -oh, say a Leighton Meester par exemple- driving a motorcycle or car winding her way on the interstate from Las Vegas to LA or Phoenix, with her hand making time with the song, tapping, tapping, tapping...?
Of course you do! Bella Tech's "Summer Song"

Bella Tech - Summer Song

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