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Paris, Texas
Background:
“The whole film evolved on a very organic level. It almost had a documentary
feel to it. It wasn’t odd to be in the lead. I took the same approach as I would
to any other part. I play myself as totally as I possibly can. My own Harry Dean
Stanton act... I don't know whatever happened to Travis. I’d say...it’s me still
searching for liberation, or enlightenment, for lack of a better way to put it,
and realizing that it might happen, it might not.” Harry Dean Stanton on his
role in Paris, Texas (1984)
A productive character actor with a drooping, weather-beaten appearance and
excellent acting talent that have been his ticket to appearing in over 100
films, and 50 television episodes, Harry Dean Stanton spent the first 25 years
of his career concentrating on playing interlopers, heavies and psychotics.
Then, in 1984, he had the distinguished leading role of Travis, a broken man
trying to rekindle his life, in director Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas, a
performance that won the actor a British Film Critics Award. The same year, he
further gained a good reputation with his role in the cult classic Repo Man. Now
recognized as one of the premiere character players of the American screen,
Stanton’s more recent credits include Wild at Heart (1990), Never Talk to
Strangers (1995), She’s So Lovely (1997), The Mighty (1998), The Green Mile
(1999), The Man Who Cried (2000), The Pledge (2001), The Big Bounce (2004), The
Wendell Baker Story (2005), Alpha Dog (2006) and The Good Life (2007). On the
small screen, the supporting actor is probably best known as Roman Grant on the
Bill Paxton vehicle “Big Love” (HBO, 2006-?), which is a series about polygamy.
Off camera, Stanton was the victim of a home attack robbery in January 1996 when
thieves broke into his home, tied him up in the bedroom and hit him in the face
with a pistol. The goons ran away with electronic goods and his 1995 Lexus,
which was set with a GPS tracking device. After two hours, the police found the
car and arrested two of four thieves. The two others were later found and
accused of smaller charges. Stanton is a favorite of movie critic Roger Ebert,
who has stated that “no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet
Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad.” Albert, however, later
confessed that 1989’s Dream a Little Dream, where Stanton appeared, was a “clear
contravention” of this rule. As for his romantic life, Stanton was once linked
to actress Rebecca De Mornay.
WW II Veteran
Childhood and Family:
In West Irvine, Kentucky, Harry Dean Stanton was born on July 14, 1926. He is
the son of Ersel and Sheridan Harry Stanton, who split up when Harry was in high
school. He had two younger brothers, Archie and Ralph.
After his military service during World War II, Harry enrolled at the University
of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, where he studied journalism and radio arts.
He dropped out after three years. He then attended the celebrated Pasadena
Playhouse in Pasadena, California.
Big Love
Career:
A veteran of World War II, Harry Dean Stanton decided to pursue a career in
acting after starring in a college production of “Pygmalion” at the University
of Kentucky. He then left his journalism and radio arts studies and headed to
California, where he honed in on his craft at the famed Pasadena Playhouse.
Stanton joined the American Male Chorus and toured around the US before settling
briefly in New York to work with Strawbridge Children’s Theatre. Upon returning
to California, he tried his luck in Hollywood.
Soon after arriving in L.A, Stanton made his motion picture debut in 1957’s
Western Tomahawk Trail, and the next year, portrayed a villain, opposite Alan
Ladd, in The Proud Rebel. He then successfully played many criminal roles for
the next ten years. After acting in an unsold pilot for CBS in 1966, Stanton
played a criminal in the Paul Newman starring vehicle Cool Hand Luke (1967),
appeared with Clint Eastwood in the war movie Kelly’s Heroes (1970) and was cast
as Homer, a thug shot by “Dillinger” (1973). He went on to increase his profile
by appearing in such movies as the Francis Ford Coppola-directed The Godfather:
Part II (1974), where he played an FBI agent protecting Michael V Gazzo, and
Ridley Scott’s sci-fi thriller Alien (1979). Also in 1979, he displayed his
musical talent again by playing an older country-western singer in The Rose and
was seen in the CBS Flatbed Annie & Sweetpie: Lady Truckers, costarring Annie
Potts.
Following performances in such movies as The Black Marble (1980), Private
Benjamin (1980), Escape from New York (1981), Young Doctors in Love (1982) and
John Carpenter’s Christine (1983), Stanton delivered what would become his
finest role to date in the touching Paris, Texas (1984). Under the direction of
Wim Wenders, he brilliantly starred as Travis, a man attempting to put his life
back together and reunite with his alienated family, and won a British Film
Critics for Best Actor. A favorite of the art film crowd, Stanton cemented his
status among the hipsters that same year with the Alex Cox cult classic Repo
Man, playing a veteran repo man opposite Emilio Estevez. Also in 1984, he played
the father of Charlie Sheen and Patrick Swayze in Red Dawn. Stanton next could
be seen as a bad-tempered old man in Robert Altman’s big screen adaptation of
Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love (1985), as an adorably shameless, chronically
jobless man, opposite Molly Ringwald, in Pretty in Pink (1986) and Saul/Paul in
Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).
From 1990-1996, Stanton kept busy by taking on roles in a variety of films. He
was cast as sensitive and unlucky private investigator Johnnie Farragut in David
Lynch’s Wild at Heart (1990), rejoined Lynch for a starring role in Twin Peaks:
Fire Walk With Me (1992), played the serial killer Max Cheski in Never Talk to
Strangers (1995), costarred with Kelsey Grammar in Down Periscope (1996) and had
a supporting role in the George Hamilton thriller Playback (1996). Meanwhile, on
television, he had a lead role in the HBO original film Hostages (1993),
portrayed Kyle MacLachlan’s dad in Against the Wall (1994) and starred as
Shadrach on the ABC miniseries “Larry McMurtry’s ‘Dead Man’s Walk’” (1996).
Unstoppable, even after becoming the victim of a home invasion burglary, the
actor undertook the role of Sean Penn’s best friend in Nick Cassavettes’ She’s
So Lovely (1997), supported Damian Chapa in Midnight Blue (1997) and teamed up
with Steven Seagal in Fire Down Below (1997. He then offered an earnest
portrayal as the grandfather of a large and learning disabled teen boy (Elden
Henson) in The Mighty (1998). After the movie version of Hunter S. Thompson’s
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), he rounded out the decade by appearing in
David Lynch’s low-key, G-rated drama The Straight Story (1999) and director
Frank Darabont’s The Green Mile (1999), starring Tom Hanks.
Kicking off the new millennium, the talented character actor was cast as the
cool manager of an opera company in the flamboyant and often exaggerated period
drama The Man Who Cried (2000) and had a small part, opposite Michael Vartan, in
Sand (2000). He appeared with Jack Nicholson in director Sean Penn’s The Pledge
(2001), played a troublemaker thief and gambler in Nicholas Cage’s terrible
directorial debut Sonny (2002), and in 2004, he had small roles in the
unsuccessful films Chrystal and The Big Bounce. Back to television, Stanton
appeared as himself in an episode of the CBS hit comedy “Two and A Half Men”
(2004) before landing a regular supporting role on HBO’s “Big Love” (2006-?), as
Roman Grant, the strict head of a fundamentalist commune in Mormon Utah. The
show centers on a polygamist (Bill Paxton) and his relationship with his three
wives.
Stanton then appeared in The Wendell Baker Story (2005), Alpha Dog (2006), Alien
Autopsy (2006) and Inland Empire (2006). More recently, he played Gus in
writer-director Stephen Berra’s The Good Life, which was screened at the
Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2007. Among his costars in the
comedy/drama were Mark Webber and Zooey Deschanel.
Awards:
