Well, here's the third: RIP, Dennis Weaver
Filed under: Action, Classics, Drama, Newsstand, Obits
Though he was much better know as a television actor, Dennis Weaver made an indelible impression on movie audiences as the nervous hotel manager in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil. In a performance that some think was an inspiration for Anthony Perkins' Norman Bates (Psycho came out two year later), Weaver made his ostensibly minor character into a figure so unpredictable and oddly threatening that he imbued his scenes with Janet Leigh with an undeniable, frightening tension.
Apart from that single, unforgettable performance, Weaver's career was made on television, often in westerns. He received an Emmy during his nine year stint as the faithful Chester Goode on Gunsmoke, and also starred in Gentle Ben and McCloud. Respected by his peers, Weaver was elected to a single term as president of the Screen Actors Guild, a post he held in the early 1970s.
Weaver died on Friday at his home in Colorado; he was 81.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-28-2006 @ 1:51AM
LA said...
This is especially sad for me... I feel like I knew this man even though we had never met. Like so many, I grew up with re-runs of Gunsmoke and first-runs of McCloud. The difference for me was that I grew up with strangers approaching my dad for an autograph - believing him to be Dennis Weaver. Some were so disappointed to be told they got the wrong guy, they refused to believe it could be anyone else! He and my dad could have been twins except for the 15 year age difference. Everytime I run across a photo of Mr. Weaver, I think of my father.
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2-28-2006 @ 4:47PM
Karen Elizabeth Bush said...
Don Knotts died. I thought, "too bad -- I remember when he was such a household word." Darren McGavin died. I thought, "oh gee -- another one; I guess soon there'll be a third."
Dennis Weaver / Chester Good died, and I thought, "My God! I've lost a member of the family. I need to send a sympathy card to somebody. This is all wrong! The man is supposed to be out there, a part of my world. He's supposed to turn up from time to time on the Westerns channel, or in environmental news, so I can think, 'well, hi there -- nice to see you're still alive and kickin'.'"
Rational thinking points out that Chester IS still around, right there in Dodge, coffee pot in hand -- as long as there are reruns, Chester Good is still part of television's Old West. He never left the place we always could find him, but it is very sad to realize that he is no longer part of this world, too.
Now only Jim Arness survives of the original half-hour show. First Doc, then Miss Kitty, now Chester...
I worry now about the marshall. Perhaps Chester has just gone on ahead to put the coffee pot on the stove for Mr. Dillon.
Rest in peace, Dennis Weaver. You brought warmth and joy and refreshingly healthy living to the silver screen.
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