Rip Torn, cult actor, dies aged 88
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/jul/10/rip-torn-cult-actor-dies-aged-88
Rip Torn, America’s celebrated wildman actor, has died aged 88. Torn, who had been a constant presence on stage and screen since the mid-1950s, was arguably better known for his eccentric, and occasionally violent, antics when the cameras weren’t rolling – and on one notorious occasion, when they were.
His publicist Rick Miramontez confirmed Torn died Tuesday afternoon at his home with his wife, actor Amy Wright, and daughters Katie Torn and Angelica Page by his side. No cause of death was given.
During the filming of Norman Mailer’s “underground” film Maidstone, a largely improvised production made at the height of the late 60s counterculture, Torn played Mailer’s brother, and attacked Mailer for real, hitting him over the head with a hammer and then attempting to strangle him. Mailer responded by biting Torn’s ear.
Torn’s reputation for irascibility had already been established inside the industry after a row with Dennis Hopper during the pre-production of Easy Rider, the seminal 1969 counterculture biker movie, that led to Torn being replaced by Jack Nicholson before shooting began. The incident became more widely known after Hopper claimed on a TV talkshow in 1994 that Torn had pulled a knife on him; Torn subsequent sued, claiming that Hopper had in fact pulled the knife on him. The court found in Torn’s favor, and awarded him $475,000 in damages.
It was Torn’s friendship with writer and fellow Texan Terry Southern (the pair met on Cincinnati Kid) that led to the Easy Rider debacle: Southern had written the role of lawyer George Hanson for Torn, but after the altercation with Hopper it went to Nicholson. Torn later claimed that it had damaged his career, and it’s certainly the case that it did not progress in the 1970s and 80s in the way he might have expected. He played a mobster in the 1972 blaxploitation Slaughter, and an industrialist in oddball 1976 sci-fi The Man Who Fell to Earth (opposite David Bowie) – and he received an unexpected best supporting actor Oscar nomination in 1983 for the lyrical 1920s-set author memoir Cross Creek. He also made a disastrous directorial debut with the 1988 Whoopi Goldberg comedy The Telephone; Torn found it difficult to deal with Goldberg’s improvisatory style and the pair clashed repeatedly. Otherwise, much of his time was spent becalmed in run-of-the-mill crime and horror.
However, Torn experienced a dramatic career upturn after being cast as Machiavellian, foulmouthed talk-show producer Artie in The Larry Sanders Show, after the producers were impressed by his turn as a lawyer in the Albert Brooks afterlife comedy Defending Your Life. The show ran from 1992 to 1998, and Torn was nominated for an Emmy for each of its six seasons: he only won once, in 1996. As a result, he began appearing in higher-profile films: notably as Agent Z in the blockbuster sci-fi comedy Men in Black in 1997, and the literary comedy-drama Wonder Boys in 2000.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/jul/10/rip-torn-cult-actor-dies-aged-88
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Rip Torn, America’s celebrated wildman actor, has died aged 88. Torn, who had been a constant presence on stage and screen since the mid-1950s, was arguably better known for his eccentric, and occasionally violent, antics when the cameras weren’t rolling – and on one notorious occasion, when they were.
His publicist Rick Miramontez confirmed Torn died Tuesday afternoon at his home with his wife, actor Amy Wright, and daughters Katie Torn and Angelica Page by his side. No cause of death was given.
During the filming of Norman Mailer’s “underground” film Maidstone, a largely improvised production made at the height of the late 60s counterculture, Torn played Mailer’s brother, and attacked Mailer for real, hitting him over the head with a hammer and then attempting to strangle him. Mailer responded by biting Torn’s ear.
Torn’s reputation for irascibility had already been established inside the industry after a row with Dennis Hopper during the pre-production of Easy Rider, the seminal 1969 counterculture biker movie, that led to Torn being replaced by Jack Nicholson before shooting began. The incident became more widely known after Hopper claimed on a TV talkshow in 1994 that Torn had pulled a knife on him; Torn subsequent sued, claiming that Hopper had in fact pulled the knife on him. The court found in Torn’s favor, and awarded him $475,000 in damages.
It was Torn’s friendship with writer and fellow Texan Terry Southern (the pair met on Cincinnati Kid) that led to the Easy Rider debacle: Southern had written the role of lawyer George Hanson for Torn, but after the altercation with Hopper it went to Nicholson. Torn later claimed that it had damaged his career, and it’s certainly the case that it did not progress in the 1970s and 80s in the way he might have expected. He played a mobster in the 1972 blaxploitation Slaughter, and an industrialist in oddball 1976 sci-fi The Man Who Fell to Earth (opposite David Bowie) – and he received an unexpected best supporting actor Oscar nomination in 1983 for the lyrical 1920s-set author memoir Cross Creek. He also made a disastrous directorial debut with the 1988 Whoopi Goldberg comedy The Telephone; Torn found it difficult to deal with Goldberg’s improvisatory style and the pair clashed repeatedly. Otherwise, much of his time was spent becalmed in run-of-the-mill crime and horror.
However, Torn experienced a dramatic career upturn after being cast as Machiavellian, foulmouthed talk-show producer Artie in The Larry Sanders Show, after the producers were impressed by his turn as a lawyer in the Albert Brooks afterlife comedy Defending Your Life. The show ran from 1992 to 1998, and Torn was nominated for an Emmy for each of its six seasons: he only won once, in 1996. As a result, he began appearing in higher-profile films: notably as Agent Z in the blockbuster sci-fi comedy Men in Black in 1997, and the literary comedy-drama Wonder Boys in 2000.
RIP Rip.
