John Mahoney (1940-2018)

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John Mahoney (1940-2018)

#1 Post by Self » Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:14 pm


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domino harvey
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Re: Passages

#2 Post by domino harvey » Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:20 pm

A great actor and welcome presence in big and small screens. I think he was robbed of an Oscar nom for Moonstruck

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mfunk9786
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Re: Passages

#3 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:28 pm

Can say the same for Say Anything, which with 30 years of hindsight is starting to look like one of the actual finest films of the 1980s, in which he gives the best performance

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domino harvey
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Re: Passages

#4 Post by domino harvey » Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:30 pm

I knew I was an adult when I watched that movie and agreed with Mahoney: Ione Skye is too good for John Cusack!

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Re: Passages

#5 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:34 pm

domino harvey wrote:I knew I was an adult when I watched that movie and agreed with Mahoney: Ione Skye is too good for John Cusack!
One of the things that’s so great about it is that depending on your age or personal perspective, all three characters are not incorrect in their aims, they’re just all varying levels of misguided. The final scene we see Mahoney in, when he’s paid a visit in prison, is a knockout.

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Re: Passages

#6 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:52 pm

I have a chair in my living room that is strong as an ox but the cheap imitation leather upholstery has all but worn off by now. It's not much but it's comfy, and I've called it my Martin Crane chair almost from the moment I got it.

Albert Hall and him played an old couple on ER once and it was rather heartbreaking from what I remember.

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Re: Passages

#7 Post by bearcuborg » Mon Feb 05, 2018 8:04 pm

With all the shows being rebooted-I would have loved Frasier brought back. I usually have it playing on my Amazon Prime account throughout the year. A big loss for all of us.

Chicago is my beloved hometown-Mahoney said it best about our favorite places:

"The city is almost like a person to me," Mahoney said. "I can't tell you why my heart is so full of Chicago, but it's where I want to be. When I'm not here, I'm not as happy."

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Re: Passages

#8 Post by PfR73 » Tue Feb 06, 2018 12:15 am

mfunk9786 wrote:Can say the same for Say Anything, which with 30 years of hindsight is starting to look like one of the actual finest films of the 1980s, in which he gives the best performance
I've always thought the film was excellent, my favorite romantic movie; but I completely agree that the balancing act of his performance is one of the things that elevates it.

I've never forgotten his Paul Newman parody in Ben Stiller's The Hustler Of Money since seeing it during a late-night 80's SNL rerun back when I was in college; he absolutely steals the show.

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Re: John Mahoney (1940-2018)

#9 Post by Sloper » Tue Feb 06, 2018 3:56 am

Just wanted to put in a word for his performance in Season 2 of In Treatment - it's a great piece of slow-burn acting, with a devastating emotional payoff in the last couple of sessions.

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Re: John Mahoney (1940-2018)

#10 Post by jazzo » Tue Feb 06, 2018 1:22 pm

Might as well add my praise for his beautiful perfomance as Moe Adams in Barry Levinson's Tin Men. I've always felt that it was the way Mahoney plays Moe's deep sense of regret that sobers his partner, BB Babowsky (Richard Deyrfuss), into making his own positive life changes, at least regarding women.

Jesus, do I love that film.

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Re: John Mahoney (1940-2018)

#11 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Tue Feb 06, 2018 3:07 pm

Also plays an embassy guy in Frantic by the director that can't be named.

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mfunk9786
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Re: John Mahoney (1940-2018)

#12 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Feb 06, 2018 3:20 pm

Roman Polanski can be named.

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Brian C
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Re: John Mahoney (1940-2018)

#13 Post by Brian C » Tue Feb 06, 2018 3:21 pm

Ooooh, ok. I thought he meant Stanley Kramer.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Passages

#14 Post by hearthesilence » Tue Feb 06, 2018 3:30 pm

bearcuborg wrote:With all the shows being rebooted-I would have loved Frasier brought back. I usually have it playing on my Amazon Prime account throughout the year. A big loss for all of us.

Chicago is my beloved hometown-Mahoney said it best about our favorite places:

"The city is almost like a person to me," Mahoney said. "I can't tell you why my heart is so full of Chicago, but it's where I want to be. When I'm not here, I'm not as happy."
I wasn't there, but last night Steppenwolf cancelled their shows and apparently gathered at the bar with anyone who showed up to pay their respects.

He was such a fixture of the Chicago theater community and was still acting in Steppenwolf plays as recently as last fall. The fact that he didn't even act until he was in his 40's should serve as an inspiration to anyone who gets the bug late in life but figures it's too late. (If anything, one might have an easier time as an adult with money.)

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hearthesilence
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Re: John Mahoney (1940-2018)

#15 Post by hearthesilence » Tue Feb 06, 2018 4:18 pm

Obituary from the Chicago Tribune's theater critic.

An excerpt:

Mahoney hated Los Angeles and greatly preferred Oak Park, where he lived quietly for years. Once “Frasier” was over, Mahoney refused to participate in the usual nostalgic reunions. He didn’t show up in 2001 when no less than Oprah Winfrey invited the entire cast of the sitcom onto her vaunted talk show. Kelsey Grammer was there. So was David Hyde Pierce. But not Mahoney.

"I just couldn't be bothered,” Mahoney told the Tribune in 2004. "That kind of thing bores me. I have better things to do with my life. I'm 63, I've made a ton of money and I don't have to worry about my next job. … It's over. It's done. Let it go. I don't want to talk about it for the rest of my life."

Mahoney was always grateful for what “Frasier” had done for him and took care to say so on numerous occasions. His success on that show meant that, thereafter, he could focus on Chicago theater, his great love, and on the Steppenwolf Theatre in particular. By not having to worry about money, he was able to work on what he wanted — like acting for scale in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” at Chicago’s tiny Irish Repertory Theatre. But over the years, he lavished most of his time and attention on his beloved Steppenwolf, appearing in more than 30 productions in total at the theater, including Conor McPherson's "The Seafarer" in 2008, perhaps Mahoney's most devastating performance, if only for the way it emphasized his inherent frailty.

There was something else unusual about Mahoney — he came to the profession that would make him famous uncommonly late. Only in his 40s did Mahoney become a professional actor.

“By the time I started my career, most people had given up and started selling insurance," Mahoney once said. "I didn't have so much competition."

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Re: John Mahoney (1940-2018)

#16 Post by Roger Ryan » Tue Feb 06, 2018 5:11 pm

I was able to see Mahoney live at the Steppenwolf in '92 when he appeared in a supporting role in the production of The Song of Jacob Zulu, an appealing play that featured Ladysmith Black Mambazo performing as a Greek chorus (the great Zakes Mokae also had a role). As others have noted above, his turn in Say Anything was remarkable, and its to Cameron Crowe's credit that he cared enough to write a well-rounded father character when virtually all other teen romantic comedies would keep this kind of character as a one-dimensional antagonist. The scene where the father flirts with the salesperson as he purchases a luggage set, only to have his credit card rejected, is a heartbreaking moment of humiliation that Mahoney played beautifully.

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Re: John Mahoney (1940-2018)

#17 Post by domino harvey » Tue Feb 06, 2018 7:47 pm

Great obit, thanks for sharing. Mahoney seems like every bit the great guy I always assumed he was

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Re: John Mahoney (1940-2018)

#18 Post by domino harvey » Wed Feb 07, 2018 9:17 pm

Mahoney's cause of death was seemingly everything

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Roger Ryan
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Re: John Mahoney (1940-2018)

#19 Post by Roger Ryan » Thu Feb 08, 2018 9:30 am

domino harvey wrote:Mahoney's cause of death was seemingly everything
And, astonishingly, he was still on-stage performing as late as three months ago!

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Re: John Mahoney (1940-2018)

#20 Post by barryconvex » Mon Apr 16, 2018 10:49 pm

I won't ever forget Mahoney in two of the funniest supporting parts in the Coen's back catalog-the drunken southern author W.P. Mayhew in Barton Fink and the newspaper editor in The Hudsucker Proxy-"J. Edgar Hoover: crime buster or pantywaist?"...

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