Hey, guys. Quint here to talk a little bit about the late, great Michael Parks. Kevin Smith announced this morning that Mr. Parks passed away. The man had a massive career, posting nearly 150 acting credits spanning from 1961 to 2017.
It's funny. His early career was made by playing the dangerous young punk in things like Wild Seed and his mid-later career was almost exclusively law enforcement types, including his Tarantinoverse crossover character Earl McGraw, and flashy villains.
In the middle he had a great run that'd make any character actor's dreams come true, finding a big central role in the late '60s show THEN CAME BRONSON, where he played a chopper-riding ex-reporter who wanders the country with his motorcycle helping random people. He was the constant in an ever-changing cast that included Jack Klugman, Penny Marshall, Martin Sheen, Dabney Coleman, Bruce Dern, Robert Loggia, Kurt Russell and even Oliver himself, young Mark Lester (pictured with Parks below).
Parks played Adam for John Huston in THE BIBLE and starred in a few other films in the '60s and '70s, but he was mostly a TV fixture, going from guest spots on shows like The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Gunsmoke to Baretta. He was also a pretty damn good singer, too, and enjoyed a successful music career at this time.
To be honest I'm not all that familiar with his film work of this period. I know he did some WW2 movies and bit parts in a few westerns, but the first standout film of his that I remember was a weird 1979 quasi-horror movie he starred in called THE EVICTORS.
In terms of truly memorable movies, the '80s was pretty dry for him. Not that Parks wasn't always worth watching, but it's not like Hard Country or Savannah Smiles set the cinephile community on fire. His biggest gig of this period was a regular on Dynasty spin-off THE COLBYS, which also featured Ricardo Montalban, who will come into play later.
I'd put money on most geeks noticing Parks first with his creepy turn as Jean Renault on Twin Peaks.
Parks' particularly unique line delivery was turned up a notch on Twin Peaks as he drawled out a French-Canadian accent that is both absurd and intimidating as all hell.
The '90s would bring a big boost to his profile thanks to Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez casting him as Earl McGraw, the slow-talking, foul-mouthed Sheriff at the beginning of From Dusk Till Dawn. Little did 15 year old me know when I saw this flick that Earl McGraw would be a staple in Tarantino's film universe... especially considering how things end up for the character in the opening minutes of FDTD.
Tarantino would bring McGraw back for Kill Bill Vol. 1. and, later, Grindhouse. As great as he is in Vol. 1 (and he is great... in fact I'd say he's probably second only to Samuel L. Jackson in terms of poetically reciting Tarantino's dialogue and making it feel natural), it's his turn in Vol. 2 as Bill's mentor, a Mexican pimp named Esteban Vihaio.
He's in the movie for all of 5 minutes and turns in one of my favorite performances in the last 20 years. Parks is so damn good in this scene that nobody would even think of writing a “whitewashing” thinkpiece about it!
The line of his that most sticks with me is a little throwaway moment that he injects so much into by underplaying it almost to the point of muttering the line. He inquires about the Bride's car, saying that he heard she was driving a truck. She smiles and says, “My Pussy Wagon died on me.” Without missing a beat, he lazily repeats her. “Da pussy died. Uh huh.”
In the context of the scene he's talking about a lot here, mostly in relation to what Bill did to Beatrix, but he does it without explicitly saying it. It's a masterclass of line reading, this scene, and it was almost very different.
That part was originally going to be played by a more culturally appropriate actor: Ricardo Montalban (I told you we'd get back to him). I'd have killed to have seen Montalban roll with this part and I'm sure it would have been extraordinary... but fate gave us Parks in the role and it ended up being one of my favorite moments in the movie.
Parks' Tarantino work made him an indie favorite in the late '90s and early aughts. This period was my early days on the fest circuit, so I saw a lot of these movies. Wicked with Julia Styles, Julian Po with Robin Tunney and Christian Slater and Bullfighter with Willem Dafoe jump to mind.
The man worked a lot, taking advantage of this boost to his profile, but the two best, non-Tarantino performances of his late career came in two radically different movies: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Red State.
Jesse James was a smaller part in a better movie, but Red State was the flashy role. Kevin Smith gave him so much red meat and he spent a huge chunk of that movie chewing on it with vigor and relish, so much so that even though I didn't much care for the movie itself I'll always love his role in it.
I also quite enjoyed his turn in Tusk, another villain character for Kevin Smith. He has to sell so much outrageous bullshit in that movie he probably deserved an Oscar for getting through it. It's kind of amazing, actually.
Now, I got to spend an evening in Austin with Mr. Parks. A friend of mine named AJ Bowen shot an indie with him here, a movie called Maidenhead I don't think ever got distribution. One night I got a call asking if I wanted to go out and have dinner with Parks. The answer was, naturally, “shit yeah I do!”
We went to a restaurant right near the state capital that had outside seating, which was important because Parks smoked like a chimney, and just shot the shit for a couple hours. Parks was as salty and crude and no-shits-given as you'd expect him to be, regaling us with stories about working with Tarantino, past sexual conquests and all the while flirting up our late middle-age waitress every time she came by.
In short, it was exactly the kind of meal you'd hope to share with Michael Parks.
We weren't buddies, we never talked after that in any form, but I feel pretty lucky to have gotten a chance to be in that man's presence, even for a little bit.
Parks was an actor's actor that exuded laid back, intelligent chemistry in everything he did. His face and voice were meant for the big screen. The way he'd deliver a line was unlike anyone else out there and he never looked like he was reciting a script. The man always found a way to make it look like the words were coming out of his brain in a stream of consciousness, a talent most actors would kill to have.
With his passing we lose yet another link to a radically different era of film actor. They don't make 'em like Michael Parks anymore, that's for sure. Many thanks for your work, sir. Today my thoughts will be with Mr. Parks' friends, family and fans.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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