In Praise of Eli Wallach

[threebikesmcginty]

Watched Polanski's The Ghost the other night, a passable thriller, actually it wasn't bad at all, even Ewan McGregor was OK.

Anyway there's a scene in the film where Ewan foregoes the nice racers hanging on the garage wall and picks the mountain bike to go off for an investigate. He stops at a shack to shelter from the rain and gets into conversation with this tiny wizened old man - "that’s Eli Wallach" said Mrs 3BM, when I looked a bit closer I could she why she would say that, anyway it was and he was 95 when he made that film and that was 2 years ago so he must be erm erm, a bit older by now.

I hadn't thought about what Eli might be up to if he was still around, but there he is still working at 97 and still married to the same gal, they've been married for 64 years. His wife, Anne Jackson, still acts and teaches too but she’s only 86.

Although mainly remembered as Tuco in The Good the Bad and the Ugly he's been in some great films over his 56 year career in the flicks, before that he was on the stage for over ten.

What a guy!

 

[Silver Fox]

Watched that myself, good thriller and agree about Eli. Another double take in that film was on James Belushi, with a shaved head and the weight he's put on hardly recognised him.

 

[Aperitif]

Stop watching telly and sort your kitchen out, threechannelsmcginty!

 

[dellzeqq]

if there's one film that gives the lie to the 'supporting actor' thing, it's 'The Misfits' in which Wallach is not in any way overshadowed by Clark Gable acting his socks off.

 

[Monkspeed]

Yep I think he is a brilliant actor. My fav scene of his is in "The good, the bad, the ugly" He is in a bath and some bad guy comes busting in to kill him. Bad guy starts bleeting on and Eli shoots him with his hidden gun from under the bath water. Eli gets up and says "When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk"

YAY!

 

[Paladin - York]

"If God didn't want them shorn he wouldn't have made them sheep"

 

[Aperitif]

Modern day soap suds just don't have the punch of the ones readily available at Dry Gulches everywhere!

 

[400bhp]

Wow-that's a fantastic spot. I bow my head to your wife.

I watched it - seemed Polanski was having a dig a BLiar.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

It's back Huzzah!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Some of The Misfits screen shots are fantastic...

 

[dellzeqq]

in a sense Wallach could be described as a Misfits survivor. Gable died ten days after filming ended, Monroe didn't complete another film and was dead within a year, and Clift wouldn't watch it because he felt his face had been disfigured in a car smash. The film is a kind of lament, with Gable representing the black and white film era.

And the titles are my favourite ever. If only David (yech) Fincher could learn from them.

 

[Paladin - York]

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I was very saddened to read of Eli's death on the BBC today. He was a terrific actor.

I loved his character Tuco in the Good, The Bad and The Ugly. One of my many favourite scenes is when he tells Blondie what he thinks of him:

"You want to know who you are? Huh? You want to know who's son you are? You don't, I do, everybody does... you're the son of a thousand fathers, all bàstards like you."
​

GC

 

[Crackle]

RIP Eli

 

[EltonFrog]

Great actor, Allways liked him as one 60's Batman arch nemesis Mr Freeze.

And he did a good turn in one or two of the Godfather movies.