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You Mess With The Bull . . .

Posted by 2 Dollar Productions Tuesday, May 30, 2006

As if returning to work after a long weekend wasn't depressing enough, I sat down at my desk and discovered that actor Paul Gleason had died.

Gleason was 67, and died at a local hospital Saturday of mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer linked to asbestos.

Gleason was a phenomenally hilarious character actor, and I still remember the first time I saw him as a high school principal from hell in "The Breakfast Club."



If he would have known what cinematic horrors the cast of that movie would perpetuate on the public over the next decade, I'm sure Gleason would have kept them in detention for the rest of the 80s.



Gleason continued to appear in roles that played to his strengths of being sarcastic and hilarious and quite often a bit of an asshole.

In addition to "The Breakfast Club," some of my other favorites include "Trading Places," "Die Hard" and "Johnny Be Good."

I often miss character actors more than "stars" because I think there is something about the regular guy roles that makes them less removed from the audience.

Actors like Gleason could be your uncle or your friend or some guy off the street who happens to make movies for a living.

Anytime he was onscreen, Gleason could usually be counted on for a laugh and he was always an interesting character who I will miss now that he's gone.

-BDS

6 comments

  1. Anonymous Says:
  2. he has been in some great movies. Breakfast club- a classic. they dont make them like they used to.

     
  3. He also did a funny spoof on Breakfast Club in "Not Another Teen Movie," which was surprisingly good.

     
  4. Unknown Says:
  5. Brings back memories. Always liked St. Elmos Fire more though... Almost the same group...

     
  6. St. Elmos Fire was another classic 80s movie, and pound-for-pound the equivalent of Breakfast Club.

    But no Paul Gleason in that one.

     
  7. Nice tribute. Die Hard is one of my favorite movies. We were just watching it last week and I saw Gleason and said, "I think he died."

    For some reason, I'd confused him with J.T. Walsh, another fine character actor, who died in '98.

    Then I saw Gleason's obit. Felt really bad about that.

     
  8. J.T. Walsh was another really fine character actor as I remember him in roles from "A Few Good Men" and "Breakdown" and "The Last Seduction."

     

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