Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, David Carradine, Karl Malden

The multiplicity of celebrity deaths during the university’s teaching recess has been a challenge to more than the tear ducts.  Unless I turn this column into a sequential series of obituaries some hard choices have to be made.  Who amongst the recent dead is most deserving of eulogy?

Michael Jackson certainly is not.  While he may well have been directed by Landis, Lumet, Coppola and Scorsese his contribution to world cinema was negligible.  Playing the scarecrow in “The Wiz”, a misconceived, all black version of “The Wizard of Oz” hardly evoked memories of Ray Bolger yet it stands as his only real acting role.  I guess Landis’ “Thriller” video is seen as iconic by most folk who rate the album which shares the same name but Scorsese’s “Bad” is just that, a risible attempt at being macho by a man whose squeaky voice always suggested a lavender sexuality.

Farrah Fawcett’s film career was only slightly more substantive.  She showed a bit of flesh in a couple of minor science fiction entries, “Logan’s Run” and “Saturn 3″, a bit more in a latter day Robert Altman failure, “Dr T and the Women”, and still more parading the plastic surgery for a “Playboy” video when she turned 50.  Her pretentious acting vehicles, usually cast as an abused woman or long suffering martyr type, are best forgotten.  At least she had one part to be proud of: Robert Duvall’s estranged wife in that fantastic parable of faith and redemption, “The Apostle”.

David Carradine’s 222 movie and television credits are a testament to a man who took his lead from a famously hard working father.  Mostly he appeared in utter crap, content to be the best thing in b grade fodder.  There were some saving graces, however, including being the only actor to be directed by both Martin Scorsese and Ingmar Bergman, albeit in their worst films.  Carradine’s talent found true expression but twice: as Woody Guthrie in “Bound for Glory”, an excellent biopic of the American folk singer and political activist, and the title role in Tarantino’s “Kill Bill”, delivering a performance worthy of comparison to the very best work of his generation.

Karl Malden’s death is easily the most cinematically significant demise of recent weeks.   One of the key method actors to emerge in the post war period, he held his own with Marlon Brando in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, “On the Waterfront” and “One Eyed Jacks”, was an effective foil for George C Scott in “Patton”, and surprisingly credible in westerns like “The Gunfighter” and “Wild Rovers”.   Elected to head the Academy when well into his 70s, Malden’s most courageous act was to insist that his old mentor Elia Kazan be given a honorary Oscar, a decision that resulted in some shameful protest.  Malden’s broken nosed, every man looks gave hope to ugly actors the world over.