SUPER SIX LIST - BUONO NO BUENO



I'm still operating without a computer at Toobworld Central, so anything besides the daily League of Themselves will be a little skint. I may be doing a few of these entries - the Super Six List.

I just saw Victor Buono in an episode of 'I Spy' and in the pilot for 'The Wild, Wild West' this week, and it struck me how much I miss his style of acting. So I decided to come up with this Super Six List of his best TV villains.....

1] KING TUT (Professor William Omaha McElroy) - 'Batman'
Probably this will be his best-known character for eternity. He played the flamboyance to the hilt and made it seem normal for the character. The added twist that he was a split personality gave it some pathos.

2] COUNT CARLOS MARIO VINCENZO ROBESPIERRE MANZEPPI - 'The Wild, Wild West'
Count Manzeppi pales in comparison to Dr. Loveless when it comes to creating a recurring villain for Secret Service agents West and Gordon, but he does fit the steam punk theme well.  (In the pilot episode he played a Chinese businessman named Wing Fat, who has inspired another Super Six list, coming soon.)

3] KARAFATMA - 'I Spy'
I just saw this one for the first time. The Turkish spy thought he found a way to overcome his shortcomings in espionage, but when he was trumped by Scottie, it probably sealed his doom.

4] BEN HUGGINS - 'Perry Mason'
Huggins was an updated version of Fagin from 'Oliver Twist' and it was perfect casting!  That episode ("The Case Of The Twice-Told Twist") was also in color, the only one to be seen as such.  .

5] COLONEL HUBRIS - 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' [pictured above]
Somewhere I have a quote from Hubris in my files, but I haven't been able to find it. Just as one of his henchmen is about to dispatch the other one who failed the Colonel, Hubris says something to the effect of "Do enjoy the journey. They say getting there is half the fun." But don't quote me on that!

Hubris was in the episode "The Deadly Goddess Affair' and could have been in another episode the next season but Buono was unavailable. Jaques Aubuchon filled in as a Colonel Hamid.

6] MR. SCHUBERT - 'The Man From Atlantis'
Buono's last great recurring villain for Toobworld. The world's oceans suited his outsized talents.......

BONUS:
JULIUS LIMEWAY - "GOODNIGHT, MY LOVE"
I really need to find this movie, a fantastic pastiche of old Bogie detective films. With Richard Boone and Michael Dunn as the private eyes (not your usual!), Barbara Bain as the femme fatale, and Buono as the Fat Man. The lingering shot of him left behind in the restaurant booth, knowing that his doom was nigh, has stayed with me.

BCnU!