Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Jason Miller has passed away of a heart attack at the age of 62. I'm so glad Harry's back in town so we can talk on the phone tonight and he can make me laugh a little as I work to put this piece together. I'm glad because I hate having to write this sort of thing, especially when I feel strongly about the person involved.
Jason Miller was a great actor.
Not just good. Great. He doesn't leave behind a body of work consisting of dozens and dozens of starring roles, so it's hard to get perspective on just how powerful he could be. He did 25 movies in 28 years, many of them for TV, and only a handful really ever registered on the mass consciousness. But you could wipe every one of them away except the first film, and you'd still have to call him a great actor. His work as Father Damien Karras in THE EXORCIST in 1973 is among the finest film performances I've ever seen, especially when the additional material with his mother has been put back in the recent re-release. There's such a wellspring of pain, such a convincing shadow of heartbreak that hangs over him, that Karras becomes something more than just a simple character in a horror film. His work suggests a full life lived. He's also very good in William Peter Blatty's THE NINTH CONFIGURATION (which I saw recently in a very surreal evening at the Egyptian Theater, a perfect way to see such a strange, strange film) and in Blatty's later EXORCIST III and in a film I love unabashedly, RUDY. He may be equally good in some of his other films I never got a chance to see. Wouldn't surprise me one bit.
Jason Miller was a great writer.
THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON, the piece that won him the Tony and the Pulitzer, has become something of a classic in revivals around the country, and for good reason. It's an astonishingly expressive piece about opportunities passed and friendships sustained, and it speaks for generations of men in America, speaks directly to the heart of how we allow ourselves to be defined by our wins and our losses, and how we decide which is which.
My condolences go out to Miller's family and friends. I never got the opportunity to meet this supposedly very private man. He didn't attend the premiere of Warner's revamped EXORCIST release last year, but I did bump into one of his sons, Josh Miller, at the party afterwards. I made one of the classic Hollywood mistakes, one I felt bad about later, but it was because the full force of that performance was still fresh for me, having just seen the film again. When I was introduced to Josh, a very good actor in his own right, I shook his hand and said, "Man, Jason Miller was amazing in this movie. Amazing. I forget how much I like his work when I haven't seen the film for a while."
Josh smiled tightly at me and said, "Yeah... I'm JOSH Miller. Not Jason. I wasn't in the film." And I know exactly why he responded that way. So often in Hollywood, it's hard to step out from under the shadow of a famous parent. Jason Miller has two sons who became actors... Jason Patric and Josh. In both cases, the sons have carved very individual paths for themselves. Jason Patric is, in my opinion, a deeply underrated performer with some amazing work to his name like RUSH and AFTER DARK MY SWEET. Josh has left a vivid impression with roles in films like RIVER'S EDGE and NEAR DARK. Neither one of them seems to have traded in any way on their father's name or reputation, choosing instead to build something of their own.
It's been said that you can judge someone's character by the children they raise and how strong their character is. Well, if that's the case, then it seems like Jason Miller was more than a great writer, more than a great actor.
Jason Miller was a great man.
"Moriarty" out.
