I love you to death, Darren McGavin! I was sad to hear that Mr. McGavin died on February 25th and that all the attention he got in the media outlets were small afterthoughts considering Don Knotts died a day earlier.
Mr. McGavin was never *that* well known. I first noticed him in one of the GREATEST of the CHEESIEST of all disaster flix "Airport 77". He played Stan Buchek who was an engineer with Stevens Airlines and a friend of Captain Don Gallagher played by Jack Lemmon. He, along with the rest of the cast, brought some levity to an otherwise unbelievable movie. (Trust me unbelievable in a bad way) A Boeing 747 crashes into the Pacific and not one bit of its cabin breaks! Then it all
sinks to the bottom of the ocean because there was a breach in one of the cargo holds. Hmmm, it could happen!If you want to see what a laserdisc looks like take a look at the scene right before the plane takes off. Also, here's a six degrees of Golden Girls. Well, maybe only one...Monte Markham who plays the banker in this movie also played Blanche's gay brother in two episodes of the Golden Girls.
Ahem, anyway, I believe his real claim to fame came with his appearance in "A Christmas Story".
He played Ralphie's old man. He's literally billed as"the Old Man." Ralphie was played by Peter Billingsley and his mom by Melinda Dillon. It's a wonderful holiday movie. A classic all it's own for showing how children interact with one another and their parents. As silly as it is, it all rings true because the actors, especially the children, are that good in it. He plays the perfect dad. He's stern, but loving at the same time. You can tell that he truly loves his family. He was the best! I'll miss you Darren McGavin!
5 comments:
Did you see that Maureen Stapleton died, too, just the other day? Although she was in Airport from 1970, I immediately thought of you when I read it, thinking, "I bet that's a Carlos movie!"
I saw that too...very sad. I loved her in Plaza Suite. That's what I remember her most from...
and "Little Gloria, Happy at Last" guilty pleasure :)
I saw Maureen died too. Yes, She played the wife of bomber in Airport (the original). It's funny you should mention Plaza Suite, Jason. I was telling Marshall that exact same thing on Saturday evening when we brought her up in our conversation. I love "Little Gloria, Happy at Last". It's got everything in it...drama/lesbians ( they go together), bad acting, and Angela Lansbury, and of course, more lesbians and drama. Well, alleged, huh?
I may do a whole entry one day on disaster movies. I just don't know how I will approach it. I'll have to have lots of free time. I have lots to say.*hehehe*
I apologize for my bad grammar. Clearly, I wasn't paying attention. Oops!
He was also in this cult classic show in the '70s called "Kolchak: The Night Stalker." They tried to revamp it last season, but after a few eps it got cancelled. The old show was good in a cheesy, campy, low budget, 1970s kinda way. AND, and, he was on a few eps of The X-Files.
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