Ouch -- A Double

[filkertom]

Great sadness. Actor Darren McGavin, who was in a gazillion things but is probably best known around here as Kolchak in the movies and series The Night Stalker, has passed away at the age of 83.

And, one of the ones we've been dreading: Don Knotts has died at the age of 81.

What are your favorite roles by these two? For me, I'd say with McGavin I've always had a fondness for the Disney movie No Deposit, No Return, as well as his turn as the reporter Hornbeck in the Kirk Douglas/Jason Robards made-for-TV version of Inherit the Wind. With Knotts, it's no contest: The Incredible Mr. Limpet, followed closely by the TV repairman/evil demigod/whatever in Pleasantville.

Comments

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

For McGavin, it has to be Kolchak. That series launched a dozen Call of Cthuthlu characters.

Don Knotts? Mr. Limpet is a favorite, but I'd have to say his performance as the TV Repairman in Pleasantville was the best of his career. He manages to be Don Knotts, but creepy and somehow menacing in a small role.

[scott644.livejournal.com]

damn... RIP

[neonnurse.livejournal.com]

The Incredible Mr. Limpet is a very underrated movie, I agree. (I can still sing most of the theme, I think.) But I must disagree and say his BEST role was in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. Comedy greatness! To this day I still mentally tell people to "Run up an alley and holler fish!"

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Wow, Darrin McGavin and Don Knotts-- who'll be the third to go?

I loved DM in A CHRISTMAS STORY. I think I've watched that movie 15 times.

You asked...

[amgem.livejournal.com]

Bruce Hart... (http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--obit-hart0224feb24,0,6211167.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork)who was the lyricist that wrote the Sesame Street theme...

Re: You asked...

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Bummer :(

Famous people always die in threes, don't they? :(

[musicmutt.livejournal.com]

For McGavin, Kolchak was outstanding, largely for the chemistry between him and his editor. Although I would give him a gold medal for his performance as the furnace-fighting father in "A Christmas Story".
As for Knotts, I was never really been impressed with him..

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I can understand that. He's an acquired taste, at least after Three's Company (which I really, really dislike on all fronts, except maybe Joyce DeWitt's, ba-dump-tsh). But when he was good, he was really good.

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

For Darrin McGavin, I like how he played Kolchak, with that nervous mix of terror/curiosity, "Do I run, or see what it is?" The new guy doesn't even come close. Loved him in A Christmas Story, especially with the leg lamp. HA!

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

For Knotts, I have to go with the obvious. The movies you mention were good, but Barney Fife was, and will always be, one of the greatest comic characters ever on TV. He deserved every Emmy he won.

While I know I've seen him in more TV guest appearances and supporting movie roles than I can count, Kolchak is what McGavin will be remembered for. But oh, how I wish I could see that production of Inherit the Wind.

[que-sara-sara.livejournal.com]

I loved The Incredablke Mr. Limpet, but I have to admit I'm of the age where when I think of Don Knotts I think of The Apple Dumping Gang (tho I don't remember the movie that well) and the episodes he voiced for The New Scooby-Doo Movies, he did two of them.

Oh, and give me a call when you have a chance. I'd like to talk to you when I actually have a signal. ;)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Knotts, Tim Conway, and Bill Bixby were all lots of fun in the first ADG flick.

[amgem.livejournal.com]

To me, Darrin McGavin will always be "The Old Man" from A Christmas Story...

And Don Knotts will always be Barney Fife (with one bullet in his pocket), although I liked his characters in Pleasantville, and The Incredible Mr. Limpet (which I haven't seen in forever). A photo of Don Knotts and his cartoon self that I'd looked at earlier struck me as neat when I noticed that the cartoon fish looked a LOT like the ones out of Shark Tale...

[hughcasey.livejournal.com]

For McGavin, I'd have to say Kolchak is the favorite, although I'll always still think of him as both The Old Man form Christmas Story, and as the retired X-files agent from The X-files.

For Knotts, it's gotta be "The Reluctant Astronaut". The scene when he tries eating in the space capsule in zero G, and ends up with peanut butter and crackers mixed into the ship's magnetic tape, still makes me giggle.

They'll both be missed.

[kshandra]

My brain goes completely different places when I hear Don Knotts' name. A fellow I dated years before gridlore and I even met had an aunt who was married to DK; Paul was more than a bit of a funny-guy himself, and had gotten compliments one of the only times they met.

[bald-ruminant.livejournal.com]

Darren McGavin will always be Ralphie Parker's "Old Man" to me.

The best thing I ever saw Don Knotts do was one of Steve Allen's "Man in the Street" interviews, where he portrayed a very twitchy Secret Service bodyguard to then VP Nixon.

[folkmew.livejournal.com]

I adored McGavin in "A Christmas Story" (which we watch at least once every Christmas) Bumpuses!!!!!!

hee. I didn't really know what else he'd done (but then I don't usually)

[ericcoleman]

as holiday presents (bite me O'Reilly) I got the complete Kolchak ... the entire series and both movies ... those have to be my favorite.

And I have to agree with you on Don. I need to own Pleasantville ...

[thingunderthest.livejournal.com]

Damn.

McGavin I always think of as kolchak, probably because I stayed up to watch those at to young an age, but i also have great fondness for his A christmas story role.

Don Knotts I always remember from Apple Dumpling gang and Any griffith.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

Wasn't Don Knotts also in No Deposit, No Return? For some reason, I seem to vaguely remember seeing Knotts and McGavin together in a movie a LONG time ago. (Or is my imagination going into overdrive?)

Well, here's the third passing...

[romlc475.livejournal.com]

Per info from Steve Barnes' blog, Octavia Butler passed away (http://darkush.blogspot.com/2006/02/octavia-butler-died-saturday.html).

Damn, damn, damn.

Don Knotts still makes me chuckle thinking of The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and The Shakiest Gun In The West. His is a life that I can't help but smile about--his bringing so much laughter into the world.

Darren McGavin's Carl Kolshak was one of my first "fantasy" exposures on prime-time TV, and watching The Night Stalker was a regular event for me on Friday nights as a kid. I feel the same about No Deposit, No Return, and was equally chilled by his portrayal of an out-of-control Secretary of the Interior thrust into the Presidency in By Dawn's Early Light.

All three will be sorely missed.