RIP- Jack Palance (1919- 2006)
"Dear Lord we give you Curly, try not to piss him off!"Jack Palance, the great character actor who hailed from Lattimer Mines, PA, outside of Hazleton passed away yesterday in California at age 87.
To many of us on the CFP Board, Palance not only entertained and thrilled us with his various roles over the years in such films from Shane (1953) to City Slickers (1991), he also served as an inspiration nu showing us that even the humble small town son of an immigrant coal miner can achieve his dreams of making movies.
CFP Boardmember Rich Drees wrote a comprehensive retrospective of Palance's career over at his own website FilmBuffOnLine. However, this is one great Palance related story we'd like to share with you here.
Palance was always fiercely proud of his small town Pennsylvania home as were its residents of him. There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, that tells of a theater owner in nearby Hazleton who advertised a run of a Palance movie with “Starring Hazleton’s own, Jack Palance” on the marquee. Angry Lattimer Mines residents reportedly visited the theater undercover of darkness and graffitied the posters on the front of the theater to correct the manager’s mistake.
posted by Rich D at 11:20 AM
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When the news did the recent story about Palance's family holding an auction/sale for a bunch of the stuff he had accumulated, I wondered if his passing was imminent.
On two occasions I got to some spend some time with Jack Palance at his local home (in the Conyngham/Drums area). Out of college I worked at the Tudor Bookshop, where Palance did a book signing for his book of Poetry.
Since so many additional copies of the book were ordered, we needed to have Jack sign about 200 more books and hundreds of book plates. I dropped the books off on his back porch, and went to teach a class; after class, I called the number I was given, expecting to get a secretary or assistant. But I got Jack himself on the phone. And when I showed up at the back porch expecting to just collect the box that had been left for me, the man himself came to the door and invited me in.
He then proceeded to show me around his home, pointing out all of his antiques and his artwork in between regaling me with incredible stories of a life in the theatre as well as film, all the while holding onto a cigarette holder with an unlit cigarette in it. His home had a surprising Rococo and Renaissance influence (gilded mirrors, Louis the 14th (?) Chairs, and a hand painted piano covered in clouds and cherubs). The kitchen, however, was right out of the old west (a duster that looked like it just came from a set hung on a peg on the wall).
One of the best stories he told involved the bizarre combination of himself, John Barrymore, Jr., who was his good friend, Errol Flynn, and William Shatner. It was almost two hours later when I finally had to excuse myself (as Ellen had dinner waiting and Jack showed no signs of tiring). He actually ended our conversation by asking me to let him know when I was working on something, that he would love to come see it. And then he said that next time I came over we would have to head to the attic or the basement (I can't remember which) to see the rest of the artwork he had there.
The corollary to the story was that I had to go back a few days later since it turned out Jack had signed the back of 500 or so bookplates, so his signature was on the waxy side and not on the labels. This time we sat around chatting in the kitchen as Jack finished signing the plates (I remember he asked me if I wanted a cup of "the world's worst coffee").
While Jack in person was every bit as intense as he appeared onscreen - even the most casual comment was delivered in "that voice" - his warmth, generosity, and sincerity in conversation were amazing. It was obvious that he was as enthusiastic as any of us get when talking about his craft and recalling the great stories collected over his years in film and theatre. Truly an actor and a gentleman.
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