#RIP Harry Dean Stanton: An all-time great character actor is gone

Harry Dean Stanton was one of those actors who always seemed old. His craggy, weathered but wise face spoke volumes about a life lived hard -- and his distinct look and authentic delivery leant him incredible pathos and presence in every role he played. He's been around so long and appeared in so many movies (most recently in projects at diverse at Twin Peaks: The Return and The Avengers) that it seemed like he would always be there. But at 91 he has sadly passed away.

Stanton has long been one of my all-time favorite actors. He has done terrific supporting work in some of my favorite films like Escape From New York, Alien, The Godfather Part II, Wild at Heart and countless others.

I remember reading once that the late critic Roger Ebert believed that if Stanton was in a film it could never be entirely bad. He may have been onto something. Stanton grounded every scene he was in, however fantastical the movie was, with a compelling humaneness.

He could so much with so little -- his nearly wordless performance in David Lynch's The Straight Story may be the highlight of the movie, Stanton later recalled the small role as one of his favorites.

For my money though, his high point was reached in two classic 1984 films, both of which gave this unlikely leading man the opportunity to be front and center.

The first Paris, Texas is a moving and elegiac movie about a mysterious man who self exiled himself from his family for years and is tenuously trying to reconnect with his estranged son. Stanton gives a haunting, very quiet performance that builds over the course of the film and culminates with one of the greatest monologues I have ever seen in a film (delivered with his back turned to someone sitting behind a one way mirror).

Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas

It's a travesty that Stanton's peerless work in this film wasn't Oscar nominated or widely appreciated, but it is simply one of the most beautifully calibrated performances I've ever seen, one that leaves you devastated.

Repo Man is like the complete flip side of the coin. It's a whacked out sci-fi road movie meets punk comedy with Stanton in its center as the seen-it-all grizzled veteran who's seen it all, a role that fits him like a glove.

He is like machine spewing out one memorable line after another as he guzzles beers and snorts coke and generally behaves like a man half his age as he seeks to repossess a white whale of a vehicle amid some alien invader intrigue. It's a gloriously fun movie masterpiece, but Stanton gives the most fully committed and realized performance in it.

It makes perfect sense that Stanton would eventually find a kindred spirit and regular collaborator in David Lynch. They are both iconoclastic old horses who have both an affinity for the past and a desire to push boundaries into the future.

Stanton was never a boring or predictable performer. Even in one of his most mainstream movies, the Brat Pack weepie Pretty in Pink, he gives a surprisingly tender and resonant performance as Molly Ringwald's blue collar father.

I am going to miss this man deeply. Whenever he popped up in something, especially recently it made me smile. I'll miss his hangdog face and devil may care, chain-smoking off-screen persona. This guy was a national treasure, hopefully now he'll get his due.