She exploded on my radar in Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby (2004). She floored me as Hilary Swank’s mother. What a piece of work and only in a few minutes of runtime. Days of Thunder (1990), The Rocketeer (1991), Lorenzo’s Oil (1992), The Firm (1993), Nobody’s Fool (1994), Dead Man Walking (1995), Sabrina (1995), Marvin’s Room (1996), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), Twilight (1998), Practical Magic (1998), Ride with the Devil (1999), 28 Days (2000), Proof of Life (2000), The Hours (2002), The Human Stain (2003), Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), Orphan (2009), Secretariat (2010), August: Osage Country (2013), Cars 3 (2017). Margo is compelling. Hard or soft. What a force.
Such a force in the late 60s and 70s, he’s even a riff in The Touch of Satan (1971). Combusting instantly, Zerbe is this uncertainty. A known quantity in going anywhere. At any moment. Cool Hand Luke (1967), Will Penny (1967), The Molly Maguires (1970), The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970), They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970), The Omega Man (1971), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), Papillon (1973), The Laughing Policeman (1973), The Parallax View (1974), Farewell, My Lovely (1975), Rooster Cogburn (1975), The Turning Point (1977), Who’ll Stop the Rain (1978), The First Deadly Sin (1980), The Dead Zone (1983), License to Kill (1989), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), True Crime (1999), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003), American Hustle (2013). Nice guy, bad guy, any guy, Anthony lures you in. And that is a talent.
I completely agree. His name was also mentioned by Mike in the opening credits of Riding With Death. And his death scene in License To Kill was incredibly disturbing, even for a Bond Villain .
She livened up The Americans splendidly too. She toogles between sympathy and dislike so cautiously and naturally. You hate her one moment and like her the next. Flawless.
Bingo - “Now, he’s hamburger! Now, he’s not!”
Wayne’s World - “I’ve learned that platonic love can exist between two grown men.”
Midnight in Paris
Ghostbusters II
Austin Pendleton, another actor with hundreds of credits. Probably best known as the stuttering defense attorney in My Cousin Vinny, he was also Colonel Moodus in Catch-22
He was also the nerdy henchman in The Muppet Movie! That’s what makes spotting character actors so much fun, I think — they’re often disguised so heavily to fit their role that you have to think hard about why that actor seems so familiar to you.
Another classic Austin Pendleton film was What’s Up Doc with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal. Austin’s character twice calls Madeleine Kahn (In her film debut) as unbalanced. He was right!
Madeline Kahn would blow up a movie in the best sense possible. She slides in undetected, initially under the radar, and proceeds to draw your gaze most unexpectedly and you never forget it. What’s Up, Doc? (1972), Paper Moon (1973), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), At Long Last Love (1975), The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother (1975), High Anxiety (1977), The Cheap Detective (1978), History of the World, Part I (1981), Betsy’s Wedding (1990), Mixed Nuts (1994), Nixon (1995). Her early 70s appearances were her best especially her first two parts for Mel Brooks.
I didn’t forget it. You pick your battles when you summarize a career. You can’t include everything. Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976), The Muppet Movie (1979), Simon (1980), Happy Birthday, Gemini (1980), Wholly Moses! (1980), First Family (1980), Slapstick of Another Kind (1982), Yellowbeard (1983), City Heat (1984), My Little Pony: The Movie (1986), An American Tail (1986), A Bug’s Life (1998), Judy Berlin (1999). She thrived voicing animation and stayed busy throughout her career. Television, Theater, Film. Her part in Paper Moon (1973) is another highlight.
You don’t have to apologize. I struggle not giving people the phone book. It’s me trying to fit in. So it leads to a conflict inside when I did say to myself “Do I include Clue (1985)?” And I didn’t because it wasn’t a movie everyone liked. So I left it out. I’m blessed/cursed with having everything on my mind which is where I was coming from when I said “I didn’t forget.” I wasn’t upset at you. I was upset at myself. You can’t get everything right. I try though. I try.
