dennis weaver died at 81

[feldjager]

Dennis Weaver has died at the age of eighty one. Many television fans will remember Weaver as Matt Dillon's first deputy, Chester on TV's Gunsmoke. Or from Weaver's own series McCloud, where he portrayed a cowboy sheriff who joins a big city police force. Maybe even as Clint Howard's TV dad on Gentle Ben. Genre fans are probably most familiar with Weaver as the protaganist in Stephen Spielberg's Duel, where he was chased down by a psychotic trucker. What you may not know is that Alfred Hitchcock was so taken by Weaver's performance as the creepy motel clerk in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil that it influenced his handling of Anthony Perkins' peformance in Psycho.

[Sinister]

This is some eerie shit. McCloud, Kolchak and Barney Fife, all dead within mere hours of one another. :( RIP Mr. Weaver.

[TipoDeemin]

I quit this year.

[dougspaulding]

You know, I already asked how much more we would get this weekend - what's up with this?

Back in the seventies, I used to watch him rotate with Rock Hudson and Peter Falk every Wednesday night on The NBC Mystery Movie. He was always one of my favourite actors (along with McGavin and especially Knotts), and was particularly good in the early Steven Spielberg classic Duel, a heck of a good suspense thriller from 1971.

He lived and died in Colorado in an environmentally sound house he built himself out of used tires. His house is for sale: http://www.dennisweaver.com/earthshipforsale.html)

Three's plenty - can we stop the nonsense now?

[Bone Dancer]

Reality check---- we forget that it has to end.

Missed, but not forgotten.

[dougspaulding]

Reality check---- we forget that it has to end.

I forgot!