KEVIN McCARTHY IN TOOBWORLD

Kevin McCarthy has passed away at the age of 96. I'd rank him up there as one of my favorite actors and he was a pleasure to watch in such shows as 'Murder, She Wrote', 'Dream On', 'The Wild, Wild West', and 'Columbo'. In fact, I wish he had the chance to have played the murderer on that series, (He certainly had the bearing for a 'Columbo' murderer!), but I'm happy we at least got to see him in action with Peter Falk in "Requiem For A Falling Star". My favorite role of his in Toobworld would be as Bokonon in "Between Time And Timbuktu", an adaptation of several Kurt Vonnegut stories. And there's Walter Jameson, the "immortal" he played in an episode of 'The Twilight Zone'. (On Sunday, I ran the full episode, courtesy of YouTube, here at Inner Toob.) In the movies he was best known for the original "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" as well as a cameo in the 1978 remake. But my favorite of his movie roles would be as Scrimshaw in "Innerspace", where he could really play fast and loose with the traditional villain role.

Twice during the month of August, when the overall theme was the TV Western, I had reason to write about Kevin McCarthy's contributions to the genre - about his turn playing Mark Twain in 'The Rifleman', and my theory of "relateeveety" between his role of Bokonon and James Garner's portrayal of Pappy 'Maverick'.

Better TV bloggers than I can tell you more about the man and his career. I'd just like to leave you with a few images of his TV work, of those Toobworld citizens whom he played which I have in my personal DVD collection.....

ELLIOTT DUNNING
'BURKE'S LAW'
MAJOR GENERAL WALTER KROLL
'THE WILD, WILD WEST'
ARTHUR CARESSE
'THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.'
BOKONON
"BETWEEN TIME AND TIMBUKTU"
DR. FRANK SIMMONDS
'COLUMBO'
MR. HART
"JUNE MOON"
THE GOVERNOR OF TEXAS
"ONCE UPON A TEXAS TRAIN"
RANDOLPH STERLING
'MURDER, SHE WROTE'
WALTER BOWMAN
'MURDER, SHE WROTE'

He'll be sorely missed here at Toobworld Central......

BCnU!