by ringfire211 » Thu Aug 04, 2016 8:25 pm
The great character actor David Huddleston (who played Vincent Rhodes in season 8's "Love Thy Neighbor, Take His Wife") has passed away at the age of 85. My earliest memory of him was when he made a few appearances on the classic 80s coming-of-age TV series THE WONDER YEARS (playing Kevin's "Grandpa Arnold"). I also remember him as the patriarch of a family of drug-dealing backwoods redneck types (living in the Louisiana Bayou) in an episode of WALKER TEXAS RANGER.
To modern audiences he'll be remembered as "The Big Lebowski" in the film of that same name (by the Coen Brothers). He also had a starring role in the 1985 Christmas movie SANTA CLAUS: THE MOVIE (playing Saint Nick himself!), a movie which I had on VHS for the longest time. Dudley Moore played his main elf in that one and John Lithgow played an evil businessman. He was in many other popular films too, like BLAZING SADDLES, BREAKHEART PASS, CAPRICORN ONE, SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT II, FRANTIC, etc. He also played the crooked sheriff who ran the prison farm in that famous CHARLIE'S ANGELS episode "Angels in Chains".
by Jeff*H » Fri Aug 05, 2016 4:19 pmHuddleston also appeared as a Hawaii Five-O detective in the 3-part SANFORD AND SON episode set in Hawaii. James Gregory appeared as the Chief.
by North » Fri Sep 23, 2016 2:02 pmThis guy gives me the opposite reaction of that 1999 article about JM, I'm surprised to hear he was only in his mid 80's because I thought of him as old back in the 70's. That means he was only in his 40's in his H5O stint.
by ringfire211 » Sat Sep 24, 2016 12:33 pmYep, that's true. Huddleston always looked old, even when he was young. He was in his 40s when he was doing all those films in the 70s like BAD COMPANY, McQ, BLAZING SADDLES, BREAKHEART PASS, CAPRICORN ONE, etc. He always looked grandfatherly to me. Maybe it was the balding head, glasses, protruding gut, and raspy voice with a somewhat slurred speech.