harry dean stanton

Born in West Irvine, Kentucky, Harry Dean Stanton is the son of Ersel Moberly (hairdresser) and Sheridan Harry Stanton (barber). Although when he was studying in high school his parents divorced, they later got back together. When World War II broke out, Stanton enlisted in the Navy, where he served as a naval cook.

He studied journalism at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, where he got his start in acting when he was recruited by an amateur troupe for a performance of “Pygmalion.” The experience was so promising that she decided to study acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, a renowned institution in California. There he had the then still unknown Dana Andrews as a classmate .

It took him a while to get recruited for the movies, as he did not make his debut until 1956, with an anecdotal appearance as an office worker in False Guilty , by Alfred Hitchcock . Later he was a soldier in Tomahawk Trail , and he made minor appearances in numerous titles, especially in the western field ( Rebellion at Fort Laramie , How the West Was Won ). During the 1960s, he did not lack any successful series in which to intervene ( The Untouchables , The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ), while in cinema he played the role of a homeless man, for example, in Cool Handsome .

With his great friend Jack Nicholson, to whom he was best man, he took part in Wild Outlaws and Missouri , where Marlon Brando was also present. This being the case, Stanton was able to work continuously as an actor, but for many years he was unable to rise in the category. He was almost always recruited for low-key roles, such as a cameo role in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid , during which he became close friends with singer-songwriter Bob Dylan . He took very good advantage of the few occasions when he was given a slightly longer role, as the criminal Homer Van Meter, in Dillinger , an FBI agent in The Godfather II , Frederick Forrest’s friend in Hunch, the mad scientist of 1997: Rescue in New York , and especially the engineer who was looking for the cat, Brett, in Alien, the eighth passenger .

Since it was clear that he showed enormous potential, it is not surprising that the prestigious Wim Wenders noticed him when he was in need of an actor who could replace Sam Shepard , who had written the script for Paris, Texas and was going to be the lead . , but in the latter he finally backed down. In the hands of the German filmmaker, Stanton embroidered the amnesiac paper collected by his brother after he was found at the Texas border. The film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1984.

Although this is undoubtedly the actor’s most remembered role, he also did a great job mentoring Emilio Estevez ‘s character in Repo Man , Alex Cox’s cult film about guys who reclaim cars with debts.

Prospects have since improved for Stanton, who was the father of Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen in John Milius ‘s Red Dawn , Paul of Tarsus in Martin Scorsese ‘s The Last Temptation of Christ , and a gas station in Sean Penn ‘s The Oath . David Lynch turned him into a detective in Wild Heart , and later he would recruit him again for Twin Peaks: Fire Walks With Me , Inland Empire , and especially for A True Story ., where he makes a brief but memorable appearance as a brother who hasn’t spoken to the protagonist in a while.

Thus, it is not strange that the critic Roger Ebert created the Stanton-Walsh rule, according to which no film with the actor or with M. Emmet Walsh could be totally bad. However, after the premiere of the comedy with Stanton in supporting role A Dream Girl , he admitted that the film was a clear exception to this rule.

Since the mid-’90s, he’s racked up character roles in blockbuster films like Never Talk to Strangers , The Green Mile , Alpha Dog , A Place to Stay , and even has a small role, as a security guard, in Marvel’s The Avengers. . He has also had notable appearances on the television series Two and a Half Men and Big Love .

He has devoted a lot of time to his jazz and pop band, The Harry Dean Stanton Band, with whom he tours from time to time. If he is asked about his private life, he is usually as laconic as his characters. “I have a few girlfriends,” he has come to say at most. He never married, and it is known that he had a relationship for some time with the actress Rebecca De Mornay .