Harry Dean Stanton
☼ Born on 14 December 1926, in West Irvine, Kentucky, USA
† Died on 15 December 2017, in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA, cause natural causes
Biography
Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, to Ersel (Moberly), a cook, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a barber and tobacco farmer. He lived in Lexington, Kentucky and graduated from Lafayette Senior High School with the class of 1944. Drafted into the Navy, he served as a cook in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and was on board an LST during the Battle of Okinawa. He then returned to the University of Kentucky to appear in a production of "Pygmalion", before heading out to California and honing his craft at the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse. Stanton then toured around the United States with a male choir, worked in children's theater, and then headed back to California.
His first role on screen was in the tepid movie Tomahawk Trail (1957), but he was quickly noticed and appeared regularly in minor roles as cowboys and soldiers through the late 1950s and early 1960s. His star continued to rise and he received better roles in which he could showcase his laid-back style, such as in Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Dillinger (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), and in Alien (1979). It was around this time that Stanton came to the attention of director Wim Wenders, who cast him in his finest role yet as Travis in the moving Paris, Texas (1984). Next indie director Alex Cox gave Stanton a role that brought him to the forefront, in the quirky cult film Repo Man (1984).
Stanton was now heavily in demand, and his unique look got him cast as everything from a suburban fat
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her in the mainstream Pretty in Pink (1986) to a soft-hearted, but ill-fated, private investigator in Wild at Heart (1990) and a crazy yet cunning scientist in Escape from New York (1981). Apart from his film performances, he was also an accomplished musician, and "The Harry Dean Stanton Band" and their unique spin on mariachi music played together for well over a decade. They toured internationally. He became a cult figure of cinema and music and when Debbie Harry sang the lyric, "I want to dance with Harry Dean..." in her 1990s hit "I Want That Man", she was talking about him. Stanton remained consistently active on screen, lastly appearing in films including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), The Green Mile (1999) and The Man Who Cried (2000).
In the role of actor
Christine (26/10/2016)
A newswoman’s depression leads to on-air tragedy in Christine. Christine Chubbuck (Rebecca Hall) is a news reporter in 1970s Sarasota. Despite her desire to report on important issues, she is assigned public interest fluff pieces by her boss Michael (Tracy Letts), who has gained an interest in more sensationalist news, in order to grab ratings. Christine’s only […]
Seven Psychopaths (15/10/2012)
Seven Psychopaths in the follow-up by director Martin McDonagh, who was last seen with the dark comedy In Bruges in 2008. While the previous film had a story that became increasingly dark and dramatic, Seven Psychopaths is very much a comedy – albeit a very dark and violent one. The film has flourishes of the […]
Rango (13/03/2011)
Rango is one of those animated films, which moves past from the fact that it is animated and becomes something much more. If it wasn’t for the fact that all the characters in this film were talking animals, this film would probably be able to stand alone as a pretty good Western. The films stars (the […]