John Heard

July 26, 2017 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | FILM | 0 Comments |

Heard (7 March, 1946 to 21 July, 2017) was an interesting screen actor whose diffidence, coupled with a certain carelessness as to what roles he chose, meant that he would either appear in utter trash, or be marginalised in tiny, sometimes bland cameos.  He had a neat line in aggressive, humourless, manipulative grumps with a tendency to control-freakery, such as in Awakenings (1990), Betrayed (1988), The Trip to Bountiful (1985), and Big (1998). He could be effective in very small parts, such as detective Larry Mason in Perfect Murder, Perfect Town (2000) or the scientist providing background on the assassin in In the Line of Fire (1993). And he is famous for his funny turn as the bumbling Vice President who turns out to be something a bit different in My Fellow Americans (1996): “…nobody knows it was all just a big façade” (without speaking the cedilla).

His best work is probably Cutter’s Way (1981) where his turn as whacked-out vietnam vet Alex Cutter, a delusional amateur sleuth with anger management issues and the King Midas touch, in reverse, plays out in a glorious noisy fashion.  Vale.

JH2

 

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