David Hedison died last Wednesday at the age of 92, although the announcement only came out over the weekend. In my opinion, Hedison probably deserves to be remembered most for his role as the scientist who experiments with matter transporters, only for it to backfire, in The Fly (on TCM during the second half of the prime time salute to Fox overnight between July 31 and August 1). But some may remember him as the star of the TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (which I've never seen), or his two turns as Felix Leiter, James Bond's CIA contact, in Live and Let Die and Licence to Kill.
A name that will be better remembered among fans of more recent movies is Rutger Hauer, the Dutch-born actor who came to Hollywood in the early 1980s and performed in a string of movies, most notably Blade Runner, which is one of my blind spots, never actually having seen it. He died on Friday aged 75, although news of his death only came out today. For some reason I thought Blade Runner might have been scheduled as part of the TCM salute to sci-fi, but it's not. A search of the listings shows the recent sequel, Blade Runner 2049, on quite a bit over the next week, but apparently not the original.
Take a Girl Like You (1970)
14 hours ago
1 comment:
Sad to hear about Hedison. I remember his character Felix was beaten pretty badly in one of the Bond films. And I always thought Vincent Price played the part of the fly for some reason.
I remember Hauer in a 1990s film where he played a manhunter who lives in the woods; haven't seen the film since it came out but remember liking it. RIP
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