Would you keep me in the trouble loop?

[sovay]

I did not like this afternoon's news that James Earl Jones has died. I had last seen him barnstorming the Depression-era South with the rest of The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976) as the Josh Gibson equivalent to Billy Dee Williams' Satchel Paige. Thanks to the majority of the minimal TV of my childhood being PBS, I may always think of him as the host of Long Ago and Far Away (1989–92), sitting in his study with its walls of night sky and carefully clicking the shutter on the next incremental adjustment of his own maquette and figurine, that instantly recognizable and deeply beautiful voice resignedly counting off the thousands and thousands of frames left in a stop-motion film. I never saw him on stage. I have yet to see some of the beloved scenes that people are sharing from Matewan (1987) or Conan the Barbarian (1982) or The Great White Hope (1970), which is where my mother first saw him after hearing about his 1964 Othello. When inevitably I was shown Field of Dreams (1989), he and Burt Lancaster were my favorite parts. He was constellation and landscape. I had not wanted Return of the Jedi (1983) to be a memorial rewatch.

Comments

[mrissa]

I am extremely sad about this (Sneakers! The Shawshank Redemption! my God the things that man was in) but the news that you get to watch Matewan for the first time is a tiny bright patch. Gosh I love that movie so.

[sovay]

I am extremely sad about this (Sneakers! The Shawshank Redemption! my God the things that man was in) but the news that you get to watch Matewan for the first time is a tiny bright patch. Gosh I love that movie so.

I had been meaning to watch it for some time. I understand it would be appropriate in his memory, although I would still have preferred to watch it the other way.

[yarrowkat]

oh, no! it's been a terrible week for losing celebrities; Brazilian musician Sergio Mendes died (of long covid, no less) a few days ago as well.

[sovay]

oh, no! it's been a terrible week for losing celebrities; Brazilian musician Sergio Mendes died (of long covid, no less) a few days ago as well.

I saw that! Also not approved.

[nineweaving]

Oh no. I thought he was immortal.

Nine

[sovay]

Oh no. I thought he was immortal.

He was like the voice of Time.

[aurumcalendula]

I'm so sad to hear that.

[sovay]

I'm so sad to hear that.

*hugs*

[minoanmiss]

Thank you, sir, for great kings and so much more.

[sovay]

Thank you, sir, for great kings and so much more.

Amen.

[gwynnega]

He was so wonderful. I want to rewatch his King Lear.

[sovay]

He was so wonderful. I want to rewatch his King Lear.

I've never seen his King Lear! I assume he was amazing.

[gwynnega]

As I recall, the whole cast was superb.

[thisbluespirit]

♥

[sovay]

♥

*hugs*

[moon_custafer]

Aww no.

I also remember his terrifyingly gentle, curious, opaque expressions as he did all kinds of evil things as Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian; and his small role as the radio operator on Slim Pickens' bomber in Dr. Strangelove.

[teenybuffalo]

Thulsa Doom is my favorite thing he did. I had not realized he was capable of being a sparkly-eyed and delicately pretty bishonen but he 100% was one in that movie.

[sovay]

Thulsa Doom is my favorite thing he did. I had not realized he was capable of being a sparkly-eyed and delicately pretty bishonen but he 100% was one in that movie.

I will very much have to see that. Thank you.

[sovay]

Aww no.

One more of my objections to linear time.

I also remember his terrifyingly gentle, curious, opaque expressions as he did all kinds of evil things as Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian; and his small role as the radio operator on Slim Pickens' bomber in Dr. Strangelove.

I didn't know he was in Dr. Strangelove when I saw it for the first time. I can't even remember his first line, or what his character was doing at the time, but I remember the voice recognition was Pavlovian.

[moon_custafer]

The last few times I rewatched Dr. Strangelove I felt it noteworthy that despite Major Kong's goofy manner and jingoism, he and his bomber crew are competent, brave and determined. The combined forces of Russia and the USA can't stop them from carrying out what they don't know are false orders, but must surely realize is a suicide mission. In a different movie, we'd be rooting for them.

[lokifan]

Oh, I bet he was amazing as Othello. Would have loved to see that.

[sovay]

Oh, I bet he was amazing as Othello. Would have loved to see that.

Time machine, totally stat.