Friday, May 18th, 2012
End as a man. The Wowster pays tribute to the real godfather of method acting
Ben Gazzara, who died recently at 81, and not Brando was the real godfather of method acting.
He had the credentials, not least his break out role as a psycho Jocko (pictured) in Calder Willingham’s End As A Man, retitled The Strange One as a movie in 1957.
In it, he played a murderous bully and because of his tough kid Sicilian roots from New York’s lower East End, he came across as the real method acting deal, a psychotic nasty piece of work at an army cadet school.
He was truly frightening in the role and it occurred to me when I saw it in the sixties he could turn out to be a a real challenger to Brando as king of the methodistas.
But it was never to be. Although he had notable performances in a number of movies, particularly Anatomy of Murder, Gazzara never reached the brilliant heights of Brando and sunk into making crap movies for the money.
A sad tale of an actor who was good but could have been a contender.
A peek at The Strange One
The Wowster is the pen name of Nathan Goldberg, wowdewow publisher and founder; the eternal contender
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Tags: ben gazzara, calder willingham, contender, end as a man, jockop, Marlon Brando
