OBIT James Coburn (2002)

Subject: OBIT James Coburn
From: fat B****rd
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 06:16 AM

I am sad to hear of the death of James Coburn at the age of 74. His better known roles notwithstanding, I loved him as Spencer (Speed) Weed in "The Streetfighter" known, I believe, as "Hard Times in the US. RIP Jimmy C.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: GUEST,Taliesn
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 08:02 AM

Awww rats!
After the lacluster performance of Clint Eastwood in his attempt to portray master director/character actor John Huston in "White hunter,Black Heart" I had always held out the hope than someone would've written one of those one man plays
( as in "Give 'em Hell ,Harry with James Whitmore as Harry Truman or the first breakthothrough one of " An Evening with Mark Twain" with Jal Holbrooke )portraying the incredibly colorful life of John Huston and the perfect ,and I mean *perfect* ,actor to have protrayed Huston's
signature voice ,slight drawl , and physical presense would've now the "late" James Coburn. Coburn just had one of those great voices
Damn ,what a performance "that" would've been.
Truly a sorely missed "lost" oppurtunity

Rest easy James.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: greg stephens
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 08:10 AM

After first seeing the Magnificent Seven I briefly comtemplated a career as a cool knife-thrower. In the end I plumped for folk musician, but there have always been lingering regrets.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Kim C
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 11:06 AM

Even when I was a little girl I recognized James Coburn as a man's man. Lately I have been enjoying him as the voice of Mr. Waternoose in Monsters Inc., and as the Chevy man.

I didn't see The Magnificent Seven until just about a year ago. I think it is probably the Manliest Movie Ever Made, with people who were Real Actors.

There aren't so many Real Actors in the movies anymore...

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Murph10566
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 11:31 AM

Classic Movie - The Magnificent Seven; Memorable Score as well;

Can anyone remember who played The Seven ?   Greg S. already started the list with James Coburn as the 'cool knife-thrower'; I'll add Charles Bronson as the craggy-faced buddy to the Mexican kids...


I'll always see Coburn out-secret-agenting James Bond in the 'Flint' series...

M.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 12:20 PM

Oh that voice! Those looks! Really sorry to hear this. They said on NPR that he finally won an Oscar a few years ago as Best Supporting Actor in Affliction as Nick Nolte's dad. I haven't seen it, but I will. They also played a clip of an interview in which he spoke of "conclusions" and how important it was to do movies which do come to a conclusion, etc. I am not paraphrasing it very well. I am sure the audio will be available at www.npr by midnight tonight.

Wasn't Brando in the MAG7, too? I know McQueen was.

Thanks, Mr. Coburn and RIP.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Micca
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 12:36 PM

I always admired his performance in "The Carey Treatment" that I have on video.. sad to see him go, a grand actor..

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Murph10566
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 12:39 PM

Steve McQueen, Yes; Brando, No... M7

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 12:54 PM

thread drift, though also sorry to hear of his passing,

'Magnificent 7', a film by John Sturges, a remake of Akira Kurasawa's 'Seven Samurai'

Yul Brynner as Chris
Eli Wallach as Calvera
Steve McQueen as Vin
Horst Buchholz as Chico
Charles Bronson as O'Reilly
Robert Vaughn as Lee
Brad Dexter as Harry Luck
James Coburn as Britt

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 01:10 PM

Ah, it was Byrnner, not Brando.

Thanks!

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: YOR
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 01:21 PM

I'll do a shot (or three) for James Coburn tonight. He was great. I really really gotta watch "The Great Escape" this week. I bought the video many years ago and can't tell ya how many times I've seen it. My son when he was about 2 had several movies he used to watch over and over again, still not sure why "GS" was one of them.

Enjoy, Roy

Come to think of it I ain't seen "M7" in many years.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Mudlark
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 01:24 PM

Not only an always solid, sometimes great actor but a very intelligent and articulate man. He will be missed, I'm sure, by way more than moviegoers.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 01:32 PM

A fine actor, and IMHO one of the best "movers", for want of a better word, that I have ever seen on screen. He moved with a unique cat-like grace, ( a quality he also shared with Yul Brynner, but possessed by precious few actors these days).

He further endeared himself to me by revealing in some British chat show interview (Parkinson or Wogan, probably ) that he talked to trees. The host seemed to think he was joking, but Coburn soon set him right.

Murray

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 01:33 PM

Aw man, so sorry to read this! I *loved* his voice, just loved it.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: HuwG
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 01:41 PM

What do people think of his performance with Rod Steiger in A Fistful of Dynamite (also known as "Duck, you sucker!") ?

The Irish accent wasn't quite there, but he played the role of an Irish rebel fled to Mexico, with a lot of verve.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Murph10566
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 02:08 PM

I acknowledge the drift, Bill K. - no disrespect to James Coburn intended, of course... And you brought the answer to the next level by providing the characters portrayed, as well - Good job.

As referenced in an earlier post, his Oscar-winning performance in 'Affliction' was as mesmerizing and menacing as it was memorable...

A true Artist...

M.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 02:19 PM

Well fuck............

Knew this one was coming soon but it still bites.

Spaw

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From:
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 02:39 PM

Does anyone remember why James Coburn earned his Oscar? Yep, the natty gunslinger in "Cat Ballou"! Anyway his horse stole the show, so it takes a great actor to carry the movie. He will be sorely missed....

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From:
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 02:51 PM

He held the actors' record for the highest pay per syllable -- forgot what ungodly amount he got for the commercial where he stalked, spurs a-jingling, through the batwings of some dusty saloon and growled "Schlitz light."

Adam

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: greg stephens
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 02:53 PM

wasnt that lee marvin?

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: 53
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 02:57 PM

truly a great loss.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 02:57 PM

that would be Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou, everyone confuses the two

his only oscar was for Affliction, Best Supporting Actor

I remember him first in 'Charade'

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: GUEST,maire-aine at work
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 03:11 PM

I bought a copy of The Magnificent Seven about a week ago. Haven't even taken the wrapping off yet, but I plan to watch it tonight. RIP all the great actors who were in that film...

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: lamarca
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 06:01 PM

My very favorite James Coburn movie (after the "Flint" films) was "The President's Analyst", a silly satire about what might happen to the psychologist to whom the president tells all his secrets... The ultimate villain in the movie was "TPC", The Phone Company, which was an enormous multinational that was in the process of controlling all our lives through technology - but, as I said, this was just a silly satire. Nothing like that could ACTUALLY happen. Nope. (Uh, are Mr. Poindexter or Mr. Ashcroft listening?)

ATT/ITT may not be the force they were when this movie was made, but has anyone noticed how much of their daily life is owned by Disney, or AOL/Time Warner, or Phillip Morris, or....

Hope you're having fun, wherever you've gone, James...

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: michaelr
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 07:28 PM

My favorite Coburn role of recent decades was in Larry Gelbart's "Mastergate", a great political satire.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: GUEST,LEJ
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 07:59 PM

That smile said a lot, didn't it? Grim determination mixed with sarcasm, the casual admission that there could be no final victory except to see that fate was indeed a joke on him and he was determined to see the humor in it. This detached amusement at the rather random swaths cut by the Reaper, Coburn holding his own despite the odds, the blade of the knife held high in the desert sun, the final shock that froze the grin, the knife stuck in the wood. Quivering, then still.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 02:26 AM

Hey, Fat B., "Hard Times" is also a favorite James Coburn movie of mine. O.K. work by Charles Bronson, too. He really comes off as..well..as Charles Bronson. Coburn played the fast-talking small-time hustler to a "T." An underrrated movie, no?

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: GUEST,Tom Hamilton
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 05:54 AM

I was shocked to hear about the death of James Coburn, I really liked him and he was a fine actor as well.

Sadly missed

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: GUEST,Taliesn
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 08:40 AM

"The President's Analyst" was a definite favorite satire of the time. Always enjoyed the cleverness of the scene where a dazed Coburn is making love to some hippie-chick in a hayfield where 5 successive hit squads sent out to assasinate him wind up successively taking out each other in order of appearance and then the final aerial shot zooming out from the lovers to reveal 5 separate paths of flattended grasses of the 5 failed hit teams forming a new kind of crop circle pattern.

However also worth mentioing as a Coburn classic was an interesting caper flick with a great title; "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round ". No that he's passed from us perhaps this title will now appear on video..

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: beadie
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 04:00 PM

A sad "Adieu."

My favorites were "Harry in your pocket," and "Waterhole Number Three."

"Harry" teamed Coburn with Walter Pidgeon as aging pickpockets trying to teach the trade to youngsters Michael Sarazen and Trish VanDevere (the future Mrs. George C. Scott).

In "Waterhole #3," he worked with Carroll O'Connor in a comedic takeoff on law enforcement (and larceny) in the old west.

A great actor, leaving us (thankfully) a large body of work to remember him by.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: GUEST,fat B****rd
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 04:29 PM

Excuse the thread drift. Hello, Chanteyranger. "The Streetfighter" had good theme tune and a cracking Cajun band who were uncredited. Amazing that some of the people involved in making it went on to produce "Xanadu".

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Hollowfox
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 04:58 PM

He was one actor I always wanted to meet. He seemed to be both a consumate professional and a nice guy. I remember him on some late night talk show, performing on a gong. Not just whacking it and listening, but sitting cross-legged in front of it with two soft mallets and playing it like a proper percussion instrument. Beautiful.
And then I heard that he painted a whole room in his house black, for sleep and meditation (before meditation was an "in" thing). How cool can you get?

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: YOR
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 05:21 PM

My son reminded me of another great James Coburn movie, "Snow Dogs".
Was that his last film? He was perfect in that part, great movie!

Enjoy, Roy

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 07:31 PM

Thirty-four posts and nobody's mentioned the Coburn/acid connection yet, so I guess I better do it...

Part of the reason that Coburn was ahead of his time in matters like meditation, gong recitals, etc. is that he was a volunteer participant in legal LSD experiments starting in 1959 and continued using LSD and peyote for many years afterwards. I always thought it was cool that a respected actor who was older than my father was an admitted acid-head and seemed to suffer no ill effects from it. I don't think he openly advocated the use of psychedelics by everyone, but he never tried to keep the fact that he used them a secret.

Question: What Hollywood actor who also took part in legal LSD experiments definitely was an advocate of everybody using it? (And it wasn't Jack Nicholson, although he, too, was an experiment volunteer).

If nobody gets it I'll post the answer tomorrow.

Bruce

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: GUEST,LEJ
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 08:16 PM

Anthony Perkins? Carey Grant?

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: GUEST,Tom Hamilton
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 08:28 PM

I for one didn't even know that he did that, and I bet that there are others who posted to this thread didn't know either.

However why did you bring it up for, he was a great man no matter what he did.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 08:41 PM

Well, Tom, I also didn't know that, but I am grateful to BWL for pointing it out. The fact that he took acid doesn't alter his standing as an actor, but certainly gives me new insight into my recollection of advocating talking to trees.

And he still remains the best mover of them all (Except for Brynner).

Cary Grant on Acid

Murray

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 09:02 PM

Hurrah for James Coburn! He has just graduated from a magnificent life, lived with absolute panache. "The Magnificent Seven" may well be the greatest western of all time, and part of that was due to his portrayal of Britt. The rest was due to equally splendid performances by Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, and Steve McQueen. As someone said up there, nobody else moved with the catlike grace of Coburn and Brynner. Talk about class! Burt Lancaster had class like that too.

I love that scene where Calvera is dying, and he asks Brynner something like "Why did you come back here...to this stinking little village...a man like you...WHY?"

For honor, that's why. Any samurai would understand perfectly.

And the other scene where someone (McQueen? or Coburn?) makes an almost impossibly long pistol shot and shoots the escaping bandit off his horse...and Horst Bucholz says "That's the greatest shot I ever saw!" and the man (whoever) replies "The worst I ever saw...I was aiming for the horse!"

- LH

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 09:54 PM

Well, you zeroed right in on Cary Grant, didn't you?

To answer Tom Hamilton's question, my comments were not meant to demean Mr. Coburn in any way. I brought it up because Coburn's penchant for inner-space exploration earned him a special status among many of the counter-culture followers of the sixties and seventies. Not quite on the same level as Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey, Ram Dass, or Carlos Casteneda but not far below. He was a member of the "straight Hollywood establishment" who broke out of the mould and became a bit of a counter-culture icon to many.

Personally, I have never lumped psychedelics with the rest of the drugs out there. I have never seen anything wrong with using psychedelics in a spiritual or ceremonial fashion which is, as I understand it, the manner in which Coburn used them. Being addicted to heroin is one thing, but using LSD or peyote as a tool for spiritual growth is another. It may ultimately be misguided, but it certainly carries no stigma in my book.

Bruce

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 10:07 PM

Nor mine.

- LH

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: JenEllen
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 11:43 PM

A treasure, and will be sorely missed. Yet, as great as he was, he still couldn't save 'Hudson Hawk'.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: alanabit
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 04:03 AM

I have enjoyed reading these comments. I enjoyed his films and it is satisfying to know that they were made by an interesting and genuinely curious man.

Subject: RE: OBIT James Coburn
From: GUEST,Joe Fazio
Date: 27 Mar 10 - 12:35 PM

Thought about you today...

For my friend James...
This is for you.


WEEP NOT FOR ME


Do not weep for me when I no longer dwell among the wonders of the earth; for my larger self is free, and my soul rejoices on the other side of pain...on the other side of darkness.

Do not weep for me, for I am a ray of sunshine that touches your skin, a tropical breeze upon your face, the hush of joy within your heart and the innocence of babes in mothers arms.

I am the hope in a darkened night. And, in your hour of need, I will be there to comfort you. I will share your tears, your joys, your fears, your disappointments and your triumphs.

Do not weep for me, for I am cradled
in the arms of God. I walk with the angels, and hear the music beyond the stars.

Do not weep for me, for I am within you;
I am peace, love, I am a soft wind that caresses the flowers. I am the calm that follows a raging storm. I am an autumns leaf that floats among the garden of God, and I am pure white snow that softly falls upon your hand.

Do not weep for me, for I shall never die, as long as you remember me...
with a smile and a sigh.


© Joe Fazio
~
[e-mail] /Joe Fazio,
Beverly Hills, California

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Moderator's note: Joe Fazio posted the same poem for Mary Travers on January 14, 2010; and for Las Vegas performer Danny Gans in 2009, and for Malibu actress Nan Martin in 2010. Google says the same poem has been posted some 172,000 times, including 28,800 times from the e-mail address [e-mail]. Joe gets around...
-Joe Offer-