A heavy heart here at Mike’s Take today. Mr. Stanton has always been one of my favorite character actors who made so many films better than they had any right to be and he made good ones great. When I began this blog he was one of the first actors I paid tribute to so I am reblogging this feature on Harry and his music,.
Long before Harry Dean Stanton starred in Repo Man and Paris Texas to become a kind of cultish character actor I was always eagerly looking for his weathered face in films from Cool Hand Luke to Straight Time and countless other appearances in various genres. From westerns like The Proud Rebel to playing a member of the Dillinger gang and then of course there was Alien. Harry even turned up once as a mysterious angel in One Magic Christmas.
The fact that he played a guitar and had a very country-folk sound attracted me as well. I grew up in a house full of country and bluegrass music so to see and hear an actor actually picking and playing his own sound was kind of cool.
Picking alongside Dustin Hoffman in an underrated crime flick.
When the early days of country videos caught on Harry was the perfect actor to…
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Mike's Take On the Movies 
Just finished Twin Peaks last night and went on google and saw the tragic news. Man he kept it real all the way, 91 with all that boozing and smoking. He brought so much more to any part he played, it’s just his look and manner that won us all over. I recently watched “Straight Time” with Dustin Hoffman and hadn’t realised I had actually seen this film before, many years ago. That was until when Harry turns up halfway through the film and his whole part came flashing back to me. I had forgotten the whole movie apart from all of Harry’s bits. He certainly lit up the whole screen. I have to watch Partly Fiction again very soon. What a LEGEND
Straight Time a really good flick. Underrated. Also has Emmet Walsh, another great character actor. I’ve been a fan of Harry’s since seeing Cool Hand Luke as a kid and seeing him play guitar and sing. So many fine roles both big and small but always memorable.
His singing scene in Cool Hand Luke is very emotional. Such a brilliant film, remember sitting there as a kid with my old man and being amazed by the eggs 🙂
Emmet Walsh is a gem too, Hoffman’s character in Straight Time is so unlikable, he’s such an arse lol.
Very sad news indeed. Such a talented actor. He stole every scene he was in. R.I.P Harry.
Just one of those talents that could steal the scenes from the leading players with just a look or smile.