Harry Dean Stanton died one year ago today, and he went out on a high note: “Lucky” found the revered actor at his best, marking another stellar performance in a decades-long career full of them. Logan Sparks, who co-wrote the film’s screenplay and was Stanton’s friend for more than a decade, tells the Guardian that “filming was a bitter-sweet time” because “Harry said that whatever happens this would be his last movie.”
“He knew the scenes inside and out and would swim around in the lines until his fingers got pruney,” he adds. “He was enthralled with making the movie, but a lot of the topics upset him. He was really scared and he was also at peace. There was a strange duality.”
Stanton, who had memorable roles in everything from “Alien” and “Repo Man” to “Paris, Texas” and “The Straight Story,” was 91 when he died of heart failure.
“He knew the scenes inside and out and would swim around in the lines until his fingers got pruney,” he adds. “He was enthralled with making the movie, but a lot of the topics upset him. He was really scared and he was also at peace. There was a strange duality.”
Stanton, who had memorable roles in everything from “Alien” and “Repo Man” to “Paris, Texas” and “The Straight Story,” was 91 when he died of heart failure.
- 9/15/2018
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Chicago – He is a familiar character actor, having a long career with roles in TV and film as diverse as “Fargo,” “The Drew Carey Show,” “Gran Torino,” “The Americans.” and the recent “Jackie” and “The Founder.” He is actor John Carroll Lynch, and he has made his directorial debut in the wonderfully essential “Lucky,” whose title character is portrayed by Harry Dean Stanton. The film is a perfect elegy for the actor, who passed away last month at the age of 91.
“Lucky” was voted in as the Audience Choice favorite at the 5th annual Chicago Critics Film Festival in May of this year, and has a nationwide release on October 6th, 2017. It features Harry Dean as Lucky, a 90-year-old self described atheist who is seeking spiritual enlightenment through the fellow travelers in his small and dusty Arizona town. He’s outlived his contemporaries, and seeks to outdo and out smoke...
“Lucky” was voted in as the Audience Choice favorite at the 5th annual Chicago Critics Film Festival in May of this year, and has a nationwide release on October 6th, 2017. It features Harry Dean as Lucky, a 90-year-old self described atheist who is seeking spiritual enlightenment through the fellow travelers in his small and dusty Arizona town. He’s outlived his contemporaries, and seeks to outdo and out smoke...
- 10/6/2017
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Very few actors have been given sendoffs as lovely as Lucky, a slice-of-nonagenarian-bachelor-life starring Harry Dean Stanton. Even it weren't arriving immediately after his death at the age of 91, this effortlessly moving portrait would be a milestone in Stanton's career, his most substantial role since 1984's Paris, Texas and one of the most affecting performances he ever gave. The directing debut of John Carroll Lynch (and the first film written by Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja), it feels like a gift from one outstanding character actor to another, but never one that indulges the thesp at the expense of...
- 9/29/2017
- by John DeFore
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
What can you say about Harry Dean Stanton, who died at 91 on September 15th? That he was one of the best actors in the business? You've seen Repo Man – that's a given. The good news for Stanton enthusiasts, and we are legion, is that he's going out at the top of his game with a starring role in this melancholy indie. John Carroll Lynch, a character actor (Fargo, Zodiac) in the great Stanton tradition, makes his directing debut with this character study and his affection for his star fills every frame.
- 9/28/2017
- Rollingstone.com
Actor John Carroll Lynch first caught the attention of moviegoers in 1996 when he played Frances McDormand’s husband in Fargo (“People don’t much use the three-cent stamp”). A native of Boulder, Colorado, Lynch spent the next decade popping up in supporting roles in a variety of films including Volcano, Face/Off, and Gothika. It was his chilling, scene-stealing turn in David Fincher’s Zodiac in 2007 that made moviegoers really take notice and when he went from being ‘that Norm Gunderson guy’ to ‘John Carroll Lynch, – dynamic character actor’. Lynch continued to impress in roles on the big screen in films like Gran Torino, Shutter Island, Jackie (where he played Lyndon Johnson), and The Founder, where he played one of the McDonald brothers. On the small screen he’s entertained audiences as John Wayne Gacy on American Horror Story and even had his own stand-alone episode of The Walking Dead.
- 9/27/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Los Angeles – He was often categorized as the ultimate male character actor, but Harry Dean Stanton stood out on his own, with a persona that added immediate recognition in any supporting performance, and was unforgettable when he stepped into a lead role. Stanton died on September 15, 2017, at age 91.
With his hang dog demeanor and distinctive voice, Stanton made his mark over a 60 year career, and appeared in character roles in notable films such as “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), “Kelly’s Heroes” (1970), “The Godfather Part II” (1974), “Escape From New York” (1981), “Pretty in Pink” (1986) and “Last Temptation of Christ” (1988). He had bigger and more up front roles in “Repo Man” (1984), “Paris, Texas” (1984), “Wild at Heart” (1990), “The Straight Story” (1999), “The Green Mile” (1999) and the upcoming “Lucky” (2017).
Harry Dean Stanton in a Recent Photo
Photo credit: File Photo
Harry Dean Stanton was born in Kentucky, and was a World War II veteran in the Navy,...
With his hang dog demeanor and distinctive voice, Stanton made his mark over a 60 year career, and appeared in character roles in notable films such as “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), “Kelly’s Heroes” (1970), “The Godfather Part II” (1974), “Escape From New York” (1981), “Pretty in Pink” (1986) and “Last Temptation of Christ” (1988). He had bigger and more up front roles in “Repo Man” (1984), “Paris, Texas” (1984), “Wild at Heart” (1990), “The Straight Story” (1999), “The Green Mile” (1999) and the upcoming “Lucky” (2017).
Harry Dean Stanton in a Recent Photo
Photo credit: File Photo
Harry Dean Stanton was born in Kentucky, and was a World War II veteran in the Navy,...
- 9/16/2017
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
A wise and wistful love letter from one remarkable character actor to another, John Carroll Lynch’s “Lucky” returns 90-year-old Harry Dean Stanton to the dusty desert environs he shuffled through in 1984’s “Paris, Texas,” and offers the rawboned legend one of the best roles he’s had since. Beginning as a broad comedy before blossoming into a wry meditation on death and all the things we leave behind (a transition that kicks into gear when one of Stanton’s old friends shows up and steals the show), Lynch’s directorial debut is a wisp of a movie, blowing across the screen like a tumbleweed, but it’s also the rare portrait of mortality that’s both fun and full of life.
Co-written by actors Drago Sumonja and Logan Sparks (who worked as Stanton’s assistant on “Big Love”), “Lucky” introduces us to its curmudgeonly title character with the kind...
Co-written by actors Drago Sumonja and Logan Sparks (who worked as Stanton’s assistant on “Big Love”), “Lucky” introduces us to its curmudgeonly title character with the kind...
- 3/11/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Harry Dean Stanton and David Lynch are re-teaming at last, this time in front of the camera to co-star in actor-turned-director John Carroll Lynch‘s indie directorial debut, “Lucky.” The film, currently shooting in Los Angeles, also stars Ed Begley Jr., Ron Livingston, Tom Skerritt, Barry Shabaka Henley, Beth Grant, Yvonne Huff Lee, Hugo Armstrong, and James Darren. Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja wrote the script specifically for Stanton, who plays a 90-year-old atheist living in an off-the-map desert town filled with quirky characters. Having out-lived and out-smoked all his contemporaries, the fiercely independent man finds himself at the precipice of life,...
- 7/7/2016
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
Harry Dean Stanton has been set to topline Lucky, the indie pic from newbie Superlative Films that will mark the directing debut of John Carroll Lynch. Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja penned the script with their longtime friend Stanton in mind. Ed Begley Jr, Ron Livingston, Tom Skerritt and David Lynch co-star alongside Barry Shabaka Henley, Beth Grant, Yvonne Huff Lee, Hugo Armstrong, and James Darren. Lucky centers on the spiritual journey of a 90-year-old atheist…...
- 7/7/2016
- Deadline
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction
Directed by Sophie Huber
Switzerland, 2012
In keeping with the acting style of the subject of its focus, Sophie Huber’s Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction stays away from extremes in its portrait of one of America’s greatest actors. There is affection, but it is understated and not glowing, while any melancholy elements are not over-stressed. The facts and opinions expressed, through Stanton and various collaborators, are simply allowed to be – free of added manipulation – in what amounts as a rather quiet documentary, excluding film clips with their own soundtracks and instances in which we get to see Stanton express his passion for performing music. Like the documentary’s most discussed film, Paris, Texas (1984), Partly Fiction is serene but also apt at emotional devastation, though, as in Wim Wenders’ masterpiece, sorrow and optimism are intertwined.
Mostly shot in crisp monochrome, courtesy of cinematographer Seamus McGarvey,...
Directed by Sophie Huber
Switzerland, 2012
In keeping with the acting style of the subject of its focus, Sophie Huber’s Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction stays away from extremes in its portrait of one of America’s greatest actors. There is affection, but it is understated and not glowing, while any melancholy elements are not over-stressed. The facts and opinions expressed, through Stanton and various collaborators, are simply allowed to be – free of added manipulation – in what amounts as a rather quiet documentary, excluding film clips with their own soundtracks and instances in which we get to see Stanton express his passion for performing music. Like the documentary’s most discussed film, Paris, Texas (1984), Partly Fiction is serene but also apt at emotional devastation, though, as in Wim Wenders’ masterpiece, sorrow and optimism are intertwined.
Mostly shot in crisp monochrome, courtesy of cinematographer Seamus McGarvey,...
- 9/13/2013
- by Josh Slater-Williams
- SoundOnSight
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction
Directed by Sophie Huber
Switzerland, 2012
In keeping with the acting style of the object of its focus, Sophie Huber’s Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction stays away from extremes in its portrait of one of America’s greatest actors. There is affection, but it is understated and not glowing, while any melancholy elements are not over-stressed. The facts and opinions expressed, through Stanton and various collaborators, are simply allowed to be – free of added manipulation – in what amounts as a rather quiet documentary, excluding film clips with their own soundtracks and instances in which we get to see Stanton express his passion for performing music. Like the documentary’s most discussed film, Paris, Texas (1984), Partly Fiction is serene but also apt at emotional devastation, though as in Wim Wenders’ masterpiece, sorrow and optimism are intertwined.
Mostly shot in crisp monochrome, courtesy of cinematographer Seamus McGarvey,...
Directed by Sophie Huber
Switzerland, 2012
In keeping with the acting style of the object of its focus, Sophie Huber’s Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction stays away from extremes in its portrait of one of America’s greatest actors. There is affection, but it is understated and not glowing, while any melancholy elements are not over-stressed. The facts and opinions expressed, through Stanton and various collaborators, are simply allowed to be – free of added manipulation – in what amounts as a rather quiet documentary, excluding film clips with their own soundtracks and instances in which we get to see Stanton express his passion for performing music. Like the documentary’s most discussed film, Paris, Texas (1984), Partly Fiction is serene but also apt at emotional devastation, though as in Wim Wenders’ masterpiece, sorrow and optimism are intertwined.
Mostly shot in crisp monochrome, courtesy of cinematographer Seamus McGarvey,...
- 6/28/2013
- by Josh Slater-Williams
- SoundOnSight
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