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David Warner (1941-2022)
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 11:09 am
by L.A.
Re: Passages
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 12:12 pm
by MichaelB
It's never a huge surprise when someone's already hit 80, but it's incredibly sad nonetheless. I never met him, but I edited an interview with him, and therefore got to eavesdrop on all the chat between takes (it was one of those interviews where they just left the camera running) - and he came across as being as delightfully unpretentious as I always suspected he might be.
There are some actors - Malcolm McDowell and Ian Holm also spring to mind - who clearly thought that they'd achieved everything that they set out in terms of lasting reputation at a gratifyingly early stage of their careers (both Warner and Holm were
huge stage stars before making their film debuts, and McDowell knew he'd never match the one-two punch of
If... and
A Clockwork Orange before turning thirty), and could spend the rest of their lives in a state of near-continuous employment, a rare luxury for a working actor.
Re: Passages
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 1:51 pm
by knives
Re: Passages
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 2:25 pm
by Aunt Peg
David Warner was one of my all time favourite actors - top shelf and his passing has left me very saddened. His period from Morgan to Time Bandits being his golden years for me. What a line-up of films and performances: Morgan, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Straw Dogs, The Omen, Cross of Iron, Providence, Silver Bears, Time After Time & Time Bandits. As well as the wonderful TV film William and Dorothy (1978) directed by Ken Russell. What a superb run there that few actors can match. And to top it off a campy fun villain that one loved to hate in Titanic (1997).
One of the greatest in cinema and who made it all look so effortless and real.
It's about time Providence and Silver Bears got much deserved Blu Ray editions.
Re: Passages
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 3:17 pm
by ianthemovie
Warner was also a very good Bob Cratchit opposite George C. Scott as Scrooge in one of the best (certainly the scariest) adaptations of A Christmas Carol.
Personally I will always have a fondness for him as the father in Neil Jordan's Company of Wolves. Between that film and his roles in The Omen, Waxwork, a TV version of Frankenstein, and others, he became something of a surprise cult-horror figure in the late stages of his career, to the point that he started showing up in cameo roles in things like Scream 2.
Re: Passages
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 3:21 pm
by soundchaser
I've loved him as the audio-only "Unbound" Doctor Who alongside Lisa Bowerman's Bernice Summerfield for the last few years. Genuinely one of my favorite incarnations of the character.
Re: Passages
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 4:25 pm
by MichaelB
He was widely regarded as one of the finest Hamlets of his generation, and I can well believe it - he had just the right combination of physicality and sensitivity.
Out of curiosity, I took advantage of my newspapers.com subscription to look up contemporary coverage, and found this by the veteran drama critic Irving Wardle, who in 1966 ranked Warner's Hamlet alongside those of John Gielgud, Alec Guinness and Michael Redgrave as his top four.
Warner's Hamlet is a Hamlet of young despair. Fortified by no faith, he has no supernatural religion. That Providence which might perhaps extend to the fall of a sparrow has no meaning for him. He speaks the words, "The readiness is all," not like Redgrave, with happiness at the last, but with a sad and hopeless smile; then he turns on his heel, and walks firmly off the stage, a man without comfort and without hope, going to execution. It is intensely dramatic, and overwhelmingly pathetic. Our present temper will not accept facile reassurances, and in rejecting them Warner is absolutely in tune with his age.
Warner is not at all like the usual idea of a prince. He seems to most people more to resemble a hefty young farm labourer, with a rough, strong walk, and flailing arms. But what does characterise aristocratic lineage and upbringing is a certain indifference to what people think of them. This sort of aristocracy Warner's Hamlet has in abundance. When it is tried to the utmost, it has a kind of insolent ease. In the duel with Laertes, this Hamlet hardly moves, yet his casual sword makes Laertes run all over the place.
Warner's Hamlet is directed by Peter Hall, managing director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Between them these two men, one only 23 and the other years on the right side of 40, have produced one of the most striking performances in the history of the British theatre.
Re: Passages
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 4:59 pm
by colinr0380
So many great roles mentioned above (his role in Straw Dogs as the Of Mice and Men Lennie-like inadvertent instigator of the final act carnage of the film is really great; literally losing his head in The Omen; his Jack the Ripper finding a place where he belongs in late 20th century America in the wonderful
Time After Time), but it will always have to be his
corporate villain and his doppleganger program in
TRON for me! He's almost doing a one man play in his scenes, since he is basically just talking to himself throughout!
I also want to second Aunt Peg's mention of his role in Alain Resnais' film of
Providence - that really needs to get rediscovered some time.
ianthemovie wrote:Personally I will always have a fondness for him as the father in Neil Jordan's Company of Wolves. Between that film and his roles in The Omen, Waxwork, a TV version of Frankenstein, and others, he became something of a surprise cult-horror figure in the late stages of his career, to the point that he started showing up in cameo roles in things like Scream 2.
I remember being wonderfully surprised by Warner's cameo scene in Scream 2 - it was a small scene but very nice to see him in there. He had some great horror roles late on too, especially as the baddies in a couple of tales in two 1993 portmanteau films
Body Bags and a
particularly gruesome comeuppance after his freezer gets unplugged in The Cold segment of Necronomicon (spoiler!)
And I want to point up a couple of later roles in the BBC's adaptation of a James Herbert novel
The Secret of Crickley Hall and in Christopher Smith's
Black Death.
Re: Passages
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 5:09 pm
by beamish14
My first exposure to him was in
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, which I still think he’s very effective in. Like John Glover in
Batman & Robin, he knows the quality of the material he was dealing with and delivers a really fun performance
He’s incredible in
Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment
Re: Passages
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 5:26 pm
by Big Ben
Re: Passages
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 5:44 pm
by cdnchris
beamish14 wrote:
My first exposure to him was in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, which I still think he’s very effective in. Like John Glover in Batman & Robin, he knows the quality of the material he was dealing with and delivers a really fun performance
I'm trying to remember my first time seeing him in a film (might have been The Omen or Straw Dogs) but I remember seeing he was playing a scientist in that and being super disappointed he wasn't the guy that ends up turning into a fly. I don't remember the movie all that much but I do recall him fitting in with the material.
Re: David Warner (1941-2022)
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 6:22 pm
by Maltic
The voice of reason In the Mouth of Madness
Re: David Warner (1941-2022)
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 6:45 pm
by domino harvey
Unfortunately the first thing that comes to mind for me with Warner is that stupid Pamela Anderson movie where he’s an evil scientist in a wheelchair and she’s none of those things
Re: David Warner (1941-2022)
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 7:32 pm
by Roscoe
I'll put in a word for Warner's Evil in Gilliam's TIME BANDITS, plotting to rule the universe when he gets hold of the Supreme Being's map. As funny as he often is, there's no missing the fact that he's EVIL, and if he rules the universe it won't be pretty. His dealings with his dim-witted henchmen are great fun to watch, and his matter of fact delivery of the line, "Benson, I shall have to turn you into a dog for a while" will live in my soul forever.
And his really nasty Blifil in Richardson's TOM JONES deserves a shout-out.
Re: David Warner (1941-2022)
Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2022 1:47 am
by Kracker
Oof, thanks for this thread. So many great memorable roles thanks to his iconic voice. He played Jack the Ripper more than once!
Re: Passages
Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2022 3:00 pm
by colinr0380
Warner also has a role in perhaps the ultimate crossover between movies and video games,
the Wing Commander movie from 1999, which is the only film so far directed by Chris Roberts, based on his game series. Roberts is currently going through his own decade(s) long trial in heading his much more controversial 'cautionary tale of feature creep, crowd funding and microtransactions' game doing Wing Commander on a much grander scale,
Star Citizen.
Re: David Warner (1941-2022)
Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2022 1:24 am
by Finch
Warner also was one of the few bright spots of the dire stretch that is Episodes 15-28 of Twin Peaks's second season.
Re: David Warner (1941-2022)
Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2022 1:46 am
by Blutarsky
Finch wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 1:24 am
Warner also was one of the few bright spots of the dire stretch that is Episodes 15-28 of Twin Peaks's second season.
I am glad someone else mentioned that. David Warner and David Duchovney are what the show really needed in the wake of Lynch being forced to solve the mystery. During the pandemic I got to rewatching Twin Peaks, and forgot how much his presence as an actor brought to what can arguably said is a forgettable plot line.
Re: David Warner (1941-2022)
Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2022 1:57 am
by therewillbeblus
I mean, it's cool to see them both pop in, but they don't do a whole lot. Duchovney is certainly more memorable, both as an actor and a character in the series.
Warner will always be Evil from Time Bandits, first and foremost for me. It's such a wonderful bit of inspired casting and he has so much fun with the role.
Re: David Warner (1941-2022)
Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2022 11:00 am
by L.A.
I remember seeing him for the first in
The Man with Two Brains (Carl Reiner, 1983) as Dr. Alfred Necessiter, also my first from Steve Martin as well. Absolutely crazy comedy.
The last film from Warner that I saw (last month) was the natural horror
Nightwing (Arthur Hiller, 1979) as a scientist trying to get rid of vampire bats infected with bubonic plague. One memorable scene involving Warner was:
He slips and falls in a cave, hanging on a rope filled with vampire bats and beneath was a pool with some corrosive liquid.
is available from Eureka paired with
Shadow of the Hawk (George McCowan, 1976).
Next I want to see
Michael Kohlhaas – der Rebell (Volker Schlöndorff, 1969), it seems the
German DVD has English subtitles.
Re: David Warner (1941-2022)
Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2022 12:43 pm
by Aunt Peg
Thanks for the tip-off. I've just ordered a copy.