This week we will celebrating the lives of two men who have recently passed away, so this will be a little different than other articles. Today I will be focusing not on the great movies that they are in, but the icons we have tragically lost.
The first is a talented character actor who played his role so well that he became well-known in pop culture for the character he played as opposed to who he was as an individual. The second is a famous critically acclaimed actor who had his big comeback by starring in one of the best horror films of the 90s.
Our first subject is Joe Turkel. I'm sure you've never heard of him. I didn't know his real name either, until I read the New York Times article "Joe Turkel, the Spectral Bartender in 'The Shining' Dies at 94." Lloyd the Bartender has become a major icon in pop culture. One of the most memorable occurrences of the character was in one of the Simpson's Treehouse of Terror episodes, posted below.
Joe plays the mysterious Lloyd as a disturbingly professional bartender who pours Jack Torrance (the white knuckling it dry alcoholic played by the magnificent Jack Nicholson) bourbon over ice and smoothly says "You're money is no good here. Orders from the top. Drink up Mr. Torrance." And when Jack questions who it is that's buying him drinks, Lloyd firmly says "It's not a matter that concerns you Mr. Torrance. At least not at this moment." Things were spooky and tense before, but it's when Lloyd the Bartender makes an appearance that things go off the rails in Kubrick's "The Shining." Is he a hallucination? Is he a ghost? Is he part of the spirit of the hotel? Whatever he his, above all he is Jack Torrance's enabler. He is happy to call Jack "sir" in a way that to Jack must seem respectful but to the audience seems smug and judgmental. He calmly and professionally pours drinks and becomes the centerpiece in what I call the anti-horror film, where Kubrick does everything the opposite of what a horror movie should do and still it works.
"The Shining" is about unreliable narrators in the middle of a haunted house story (something very different than what Stephen King intended which was a meditation on alcoholism and the damage it does to a family). Kubrick gives us intentional inconsistencies throughout the film to the point that documentaries involving conspiracy theories surrounding the movie have become critical successes namely the 2012 film "Room 237" which suggests that "The Shining" is a film filled with hidden messages that relay Kubrick's confession to his part in the faking of the NASA moon landing.
Needless to say Kubrick's rendition of the film was nothing like the book and King to this day detests the film as he claims it has almost nothing to do with his original novel, which having read the novel and seen the movie, this is fairly true.
If you ask the cast about their experience most of them state that working with Kubrick was fairly close to being in Hell. It is why he has made so few movies over the years, 13 in the 45 years he was active as a director, 14 if you include his contributions to the film "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" before his death. Now 14 films is nothing to sneeze at but when you think of other great directors such as Spielberg or Eastwood they have made a film a year for most of their lives. This is due to Kubrick's reputation for being difficult and his instability as a creative genius. Nicholson had to actually get in-between Scatman Crothers who played Dick Hallerman the cook who can shine, and Kubrick and talked the madman down to 40 takes on a scene as opposed to 100 as Nicholson was concerned about Crother's health as he was a 70 year old heavy smoker. Crothers would die of lung cancer six years later. One day on set Scatman broke down and screamed "What do you want!? Just tell me and I'll do it!" Kubrick replied just "A few more takes." Even intense, brilliant actor Jack Nicholson found the experience exhausting and emotionally draining, and yet it would be Shelly Duvall who played the part of Wendy Torrance Jack's wife whose mind you can actually see diminishing in the film.
Shelly would become more and more reclusive after production would finish with the movie and she would eventually state that the experience of filming "The Shining" would be one of the contributing factors in her mental health issues, namely agoraphobia, anxiety, aphasia, and PTSD. There is one instance where Kubrick informed the cast and crew to give no sympathy to Duvall as it was part of her character's journey and anyone doing so would be fired and insisted on 127 takes involving the baseball bat up the stairs scene in the film. If you re-watch the scene with that in mind you can see the exhaustion in her face and body. Reportedly Duvall was losing clumps of her hair daily due to the stress on set.
And yet for Mr. Turkel it was business as usual. Turkel was one of Kubrick's only frequent collaborators, and he genuinely seemed to enjoy working with the man, and even became one of Stanley Kubrick's only public friends. They both connected with each other at the beginning of their careers by finding common ground as they were both from the Bronx, and I guess everyone from the Bronx is an asshole? So they were fast friends and Turkel would work with Kubrick on his films "The Killing" and "Paths of Glory." This was a man made out of emotional iron to not to have survived one Kubrick film, but three of them.
Turkel would begin his career by joining the Army at 17 and during WWII he would serve in the European Theater of Operations, where he was part of a company whose mission was to entertain the troops and keep morale up.
Turkel's first film role would be in 1948's crime drama "City Across the River." He would appear in numerous other films from the silly "Village of the Giants" in 1965 where he would play the sheriff, to a Chicago Gangster in 1967's "The St. Valentines Day Massacre." He would also guest star on television in such programs as "Bat Masterson," and "Kojak." His last film would be the straight to video, lousy, sci-fi/horror film "The Dark Side of the Moon." But the roles he would be remembered for the most would be Eldon Tyrell in Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi noir "Blade Runner" (he would also do the voice in the video game in 1997) and Lloyd the Bartender in "The Shining."
After his official retirement in 1999 he would live comfortably in Southern California and write screenplays, none of which to my knowledge has been produced and finish his memoir "The Misery of Success" which will be released posthumously later this year. Turkel would die on June 27,2022 at the age of 94 from liver failure.
Our second icon is a famous actor who took a chance and dipped his toe into the horror pool in the early 90s. He is none other than the infamous James Caan who would star opposite Kathy Bates in Rob Reiner's 1990 Stephen King hit "Misery," where Caan would play Paul Sheldon, famous period romance author who gets into a near fatal car crash in the middle of a Colorado blizzard only to be rescued by his stalker, ahem, number one fan Annie Wilkes played to perfection in her Academy award winning performance by Kathy Bates.
James Caan is known for playing the over the top mobster and tough guy, namely the role of Sonny Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" from 1972. Typically he played characters who were bigger than life. Some of his other credits include: Brian's Song, The Gambler, Rollerball, Chapter Two, Mickey Blue Eyes, and Godfather Part II. Modern audiences would know him for his performance in the now Christmas classic "Elf". These are not movies known for their subtle down to earth characters. In fact Caan found it challenging to be in Misery which required him to tone down his usual energy to be a total reactionary character as opposed to his typical no nonsense tough guy. Below are some clips from some of his movies and you'll get the idea.
Now compare those tough guy scenes to this scene in "Misery" that's filled with nuance and pain. Caan holds back in the best way and let's Kathy Bates have her moment. Caan here shows that he's not only a great actor but also a selfless one.
James Caan grew up in New York just like Joe Turkel and Stanley Kubrick. In fact he was a Bronx kid just like them. Perhaps to grow up in the Bronx you have to be a bit of a tough guy and these are three of the toughest.
Caan would later go to Michigan State University and become part of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He tried out for the football team but did not make it. He would later go to Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York but he would not graduate. Instead he would enroll in New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater where he would work under the famous instructor Sanford Meisner. It was here he fell in love with acting.
Caan would start off in off-Broadway productions. The would move into television making guest appearances in such shows as "Dr. Kildare", "The Untouchables," and "Combat!"
His first significant film role would come in 1964's thriller Lady in a Cage. His first starring role would be in Howard Hawk's "Red Line 7000." Hawks liked him enough to cast him in his next film "El Dorado" opposite John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. He would go on to work with numerous great directors as Robert Altman in "Countdown" and Francis Ford Coppola in "The Rain People." However with the exception of "El Dorado" none of these movies would be box office successes and Caan though respected by critics and directors would struggle getting cast in movies because producers didn't think his pictures made any money.
In 1971 he would return to T.V. to the movie "Brian's Song," which was a critical success and earned him an Emmy nomination. The following year he would gain international popularity as Sonny Corleone in "The Godfather," where he would be nominated for the Academy Award for best supporting actor.
During production Caan actually became friends with several well known mafiosos who were were on set as script supervisors. These friendships would last the rest of his life. He was tracked by the F.B.I. for a time as they thought he was an up and coming mobster in the family, which was false. For better or worse he would be associated as an Italian wise guy for the rest of his lucrative career, even though he was a first generation German American Jew. The rest of the 70s would bring him further fame with a string of hits such as "The Godfather Part II," "Rollerball," Silent Movie," The Gambler," and Neil Simon's "Chapter Two." He would try his hand at directing with the 1978 film "Hide in Plain Sight" which was a critical success but a box office failure.
Caan became known for being very choosey with his roles at this point in his career and the 1980s would be more sporadic with such films as "Thief" and "Alien Nation." From 1982-1987 he would suffer from depression which he contributed to his sister's death from leukemia and a cocaine habit.
Eventually he would get his comeback in 1990 with two films "Dick Tracy" and more importantly Stephen King's "Misery." Caan would turn to comedies, often times spoofing his Italian mobster persona he made famous in the 70s with such films as "Honeymoon in Vegas," "Bulletproof" and "Mickey Blue Eyes."
In the 2000s he would star in films like "The Way of the Gun," and most famously "Elf," opposite Will Ferrell, which would become a beloved Christmas classic. Other films would include "Get Smart" and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."
In 2010 he would continue to star in movies like ""Henry's Crime" and "Small Apartments." He would have further success on television guest starring on the "Hawaii Five-O" reboot and having a recurring role in the Starz drama "Magic City."
Caan would marry four times in his life and would continue his friendship with the Columbo crime family. Crime boss Andrew Russo would be godfather to his son Scott.
In 1994 he would have some minor legal trouble after pulling a gun on a local Los Angeles rap artist. The chargers were later dropped.
Caan was also a master martial artist and participated in steer wrestling in the New York professional rodeo circuit.
He would die on July 6, 2022 at the age of 82 from what is reportedly natural causes.
To celebrate these two icons we will be eating Colorado cuisine as we will be watching "The Shining" and "Misery" which both take place in Colorado. Expect some cocktails and Colorado Kool-aide--otherwise known as Coors beer--menu will depend on what I get in my basket on Friday.
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