No one discussing Slim Pickens?
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ianmacdcoleman — 19 years ago(May 28, 2006 03:03 AM)
Well I'm a Slim Pickens fan, and durn proud of it, podner.
When you think about it, Pickens had the best of all show business careers, because he was constantly employable as a supporting character. If a movie 111csucceeded, well and good, and if the movie failed, somebody else got the blame. Pickens just went on to the next role, leaving the stars to rise and fall as their looks and appeal inevitably faded. Plus, Pickens got a great part in a true American film masterpiece, Dr. Strangelove, and so his memory will live on for hundreds of years.
Slim Pickens had what I call a movie face. A movie face is a face that is so immediately striking that you can remember it later in a movie after having seen it briefly in an earlier scene. You know who the character is, and what he's supposed to be like, and the screenwriter doesn't have to waste a lot of screentime reminding the audience who the character is, even if he's been gone from the main action of the movie for ten minutes or so. Lee Marvin had a great movie face, which he put to good use in the years before he became a star, when he played thugs and villains.
Slim Pickens of course played affable, southwestern American yokels. Anybody can play dumb rubes, but Pickens could play, believable, likeable dumb rubes. And he was funny without half trying, which is itself a remarkable gift. -
MSStMarie — 17 years ago(December 14, 2008 06:26 PM)
NOOOOO you have to say it like this, "WHAT in the Wide, Wide World of Sports is a-going on here!?!?"
I had to explain the Wide, Wide World of Sports bit to a British friend of mine.
He was all, and completely innocent and wide-eyed, "I always laugh when he says it, but what does it mean, 'The wild, wild world of sport?"
Which, of course, made me laugh even harder.
Aagh; you're a HEDGE! -
hwatson4964 — 19 years ago(November 30, 2006 03:12 AM)
Before he became a film actor, Slim Pickens was a rodeo clown, one of the more dangerous occupations I believe. Indeed, he got his name from wanting to be in a rodeo in the first place. His life off-screen sounds rather interesting, it's amazing no one's written his biography. I'd love to know more about his life off-screen and whether they two influenced each other. Considering he was so effective at playing rednecks, yet he clearly had more to him than that, witness his fabulous performance in Rancho Deluxe, one of the great modern westerns that should have more fans. Great performances all around, especially from the Dude himself, Jeff Bridges.
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Captain_Augustus_McCrae — 15 years ago(January 13, 2011 10:41 AM)
He was one of the few bright spots in the 1960's remake of "Stagecoach". He played Buck, the stagecoach driver, and was terrific. Artist Norman Rockwell did paintings of the cast, and Slim's was so good- it captured his exuberance and his humor perfectly.
"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's living!!!"
Augustus McCrae