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The death of cult actor Allen Garfield has been announced; he died of coronavirus. One of the most distinctive performers of the 1970s, he brightened many a movie that generated a fervent following, having effectively got his start in two Brian De Palma comedies, Greetings and Hi, Mom! He went on to appear in The Owl and the Pussycat with Barbra Streisand, Milos Forman's Taking Off, a memorable cameo in Woody Allen's Bananas, a rare starring role in the sleazy Cry Uncle, The Organization, uncredited in Deadhead Miles, De Palma's flop Get to Know Your Rabbit, with Robert Redford in The Candidate, terrific in Slither, Busting and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation, as well as Robert Altman's Nashville, Gable and Lombard, Mother, Jugs and Speed, cash-in movie Skateboard, The Brink's Job, then into the 1980s with The Stunt Man, changing his name for a few titles to Goorwitz (his birth name).
One Trick Pony with Paul Simon was next, then Continental Divide with John Belushi, Coppola's One from the Heart, Wim Wenders' The State of Things, Get Crazy, The Cotton Club, Beverly Hills Cop II, Let It Ride, and the 1990s arrived. He appeared in Dick Tracy, Until the End of the World, and many lesser efforts, but was having a renaissance when while filming Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate, he suffered a stroke. Another a few years later ended his career, living out his days in a nursing home, a great loss to the industry. Superb at playing shifty, dodgy, fast-talking rogues, it was always a pleasure to see him, and though he had not graced the screen in years, he will be missed. |
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