Darwin Joston(1937-1998)
- Actor
- Transportation Department
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
"Got a smoke?" Darwin Joston secured himself a permanent place in cult
movie history with that particular laconically witty line as laid-back
Death Row-bound convict Napoleon Wilson in
John Carpenter's outstanding
urban action thriller classic
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).
Wilson was undoubtedly Joston's best role, and he played it with
exceptional skill: mellow, low-key and disarmingly casual with a cool
sense of dry ironic humor and a wickedly funny way with a sardonic
wisecrack. Joston's terrific portrayal of the acidic and fatalistic
Wilson should have led to bigger and better things. Alas, it did not.
He was born as Francis Darwin Solomon on December 9, 1937, in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His parents were Mary Elizabeth Smith
and Buford Odell Solomon. Joston attended Glenn High School in
Kernersville, North Carolina, where he was considered a talented
athlete. Following graduation from the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill in 1960, Darwin moved to New York and began acting in stage
plays and summer stock productions for about five years in the early to
mid 1960s. He then moved to Los Angeles to continue his acting career.
Compared to his substantial starring role in "Assault on Precinct 13,"
most of Joston's other film parts were relatively small: he's an
ill-fated soldier in the dreadful killer snake dud
Rattlers (1976), a beleaguered
pencil-factory clerk in
Eraserhead (1977), a drunken truck
driver in Coast to Coast (1980), a
coroner in the splendidly spooky
The Fog (1980) and a typically relaxed
FBI agent in the entertainingly crummy science-fiction/horror hoot
Time Walker (1982) (Joston was
reunited with his fellow "Assault on Precinct 13" cast member
Austin Stoker in this latter picture).
Joston also did guest spots on such TV shows as
ALF (1986),
Hill Street Blues (1981),
Remington Steele (1982),
Spenser: For Hire (1985),
The Rookies (1972),
McCloud (1970),
Circle of Fear (1972),
Ironside (1967),
The Rat Patrol (1966),
Lassie (1954) (in which he had a
recurring role) and
The Virginian (1962). In
addition to his acting credits, Joston worked behind-the-scenes as
either a driver or a transportation captain on such features as
The American President (1995),
Wild at Heart (1990),
La Bamba (1987),
Back to the Beach (1987),
The Ladies Club (1985),
Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)
and
The Buddy Holly Story (1978).
Darwin Joston died of leukemia on June 1, 1998. Although he's no longer
with us, Joston nonetheless will forever live on in our hearts and
memories as the supremely amiable, if notorious, killer criminal
Napoleon Wilson. "Anybody got a smoke?"
movie history with that particular laconically witty line as laid-back
Death Row-bound convict Napoleon Wilson in
John Carpenter's outstanding
urban action thriller classic
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).
Wilson was undoubtedly Joston's best role, and he played it with
exceptional skill: mellow, low-key and disarmingly casual with a cool
sense of dry ironic humor and a wickedly funny way with a sardonic
wisecrack. Joston's terrific portrayal of the acidic and fatalistic
Wilson should have led to bigger and better things. Alas, it did not.
He was born as Francis Darwin Solomon on December 9, 1937, in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His parents were Mary Elizabeth Smith
and Buford Odell Solomon. Joston attended Glenn High School in
Kernersville, North Carolina, where he was considered a talented
athlete. Following graduation from the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill in 1960, Darwin moved to New York and began acting in stage
plays and summer stock productions for about five years in the early to
mid 1960s. He then moved to Los Angeles to continue his acting career.
Compared to his substantial starring role in "Assault on Precinct 13,"
most of Joston's other film parts were relatively small: he's an
ill-fated soldier in the dreadful killer snake dud
Rattlers (1976), a beleaguered
pencil-factory clerk in
Eraserhead (1977), a drunken truck
driver in Coast to Coast (1980), a
coroner in the splendidly spooky
The Fog (1980) and a typically relaxed
FBI agent in the entertainingly crummy science-fiction/horror hoot
Time Walker (1982) (Joston was
reunited with his fellow "Assault on Precinct 13" cast member
Austin Stoker in this latter picture).
Joston also did guest spots on such TV shows as
ALF (1986),
Hill Street Blues (1981),
Remington Steele (1982),
Spenser: For Hire (1985),
The Rookies (1972),
McCloud (1970),
Circle of Fear (1972),
Ironside (1967),
The Rat Patrol (1966),
Lassie (1954) (in which he had a
recurring role) and
The Virginian (1962). In
addition to his acting credits, Joston worked behind-the-scenes as
either a driver or a transportation captain on such features as
The American President (1995),
Wild at Heart (1990),
La Bamba (1987),
Back to the Beach (1987),
The Ladies Club (1985),
Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)
and
The Buddy Holly Story (1978).
Darwin Joston died of leukemia on June 1, 1998. Although he's no longer
with us, Joston nonetheless will forever live on in our hearts and
memories as the supremely amiable, if notorious, killer criminal
Napoleon Wilson. "Anybody got a smoke?"