Super pancakes, anyone? Today we take another look at Danny, the comical but racist diner proprietor from the Starsky and Hutch episode “The Velvet Jungle,” first airing on March 5, 1977. Here we see him growling “El close-o!” to the frantic Latina woman who has just witnessed a murder and is pounding on his door trying to get some help, if that’s not too much to ask.
Here’s another one you can view over at Amazon Instant Video. Timothy’s few minutes are absolutely priceless.
I’m just basically going to repeat what I wrote when I first posted this video in June 2011. I don’t think I could improve upon it.
Today we present Timothy’s incredible performance from John Cassavetes‘ Minnie and Moskowitz (1971). The video note states he improvised the scene, but Cassavetes’ script did provide the framework upon which Tim hung what is undoubtedly one of the finest depictions of raw humanity ever put on film.
This man, Morgan Morgan, is so sad, so lonely, so desperate to make some kind of human connection. He tries hard not to let it show, and fails. And yet, when Moskowitz (the wonderful Seymour Cassel) tries to engage him in conversation, draw him out of the “script” that he seems stuck in, Morgan reveals himself to be so trapped by his alienation that he cannot respond. Cassavetes was one of the few directors willing to let Tim take a role and run with it, and for that we can be eternally grateful.
Today’s pic is another from the Gunsmoke episode “Quaker Girl,” the second of the two episodes of that long-running Western series that Timothy appeared in. It first aired on December 10, 1966. The bad guys’ muscle, Buster Rilla, has been thwarted in his evil designs on the eponymous Quaker girl, Cora (Ariane Quinn).
This was the last of two television appearances by Ariane under that name. She then became known as Patricia Quinn, and turned in memorable performances in Arthur Penn‘s Alice’s Restaurant (1969), as Alice herself, and in An Unmarried Woman (1978), directed by Paul Mazursky.
We start the week with another look at Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952), directed by Harmon Jones. Timothy is uncredited but memorable as hillbilly Crockett Pace, who doesn’t cotton to strangers on his property.
Bloodhounds is a musical based on the story of the same name by Damon Runyon. The characters are blessed with all those fabulous Runyonesque names, like Numbers Foster, 52nd Tessie, Poorly Sammis, Dave the Dude, Ropes McGonigle, Lookout Louie, Curtaintime Charlie, etc. Interesting that Tim had originally hoped to become a singer, but was told he was tone deaf; he went into acting instead. It would have been great to see him sing in a musical, tone deaf or not.
“I did a snake scene at a personal appearance in Hartford, Conn., and had trouble getting a girl to help. I mean, I didn’t want to get my mother for it… My mother wants me to be a priest.“
- From My New York by Mel Heimer, Simpson’s Leader-Times, January 18, 1958
Timothy and his mother, Ida Agoglia Carey, from the work-in-progress documentary available at Absolute Films
A little late but no less heart-felt – Happy Mother’s Day, everyone! (I think I’m going to make this the default Mother’s Day post)
Timothy Agoglia Carey (born Timothy William Carey) passed away from complications of a stroke on this date in 1994. Here’s me visiting him in 2011.
Tim, we miss your charismatic presence in this world, and we will do our best to ensure that future generations will remember your name. Rest well and we’ll see you on the other side.
Our pic of the day takes another look at the Grecophile drug lord known as, appropriately enough, El Greco, from the Baretta episode “That Sister Ain’t No Cousin”. It was first broadcast on January 19, 1977. He has just been taken down by Baretta (Robert Blake) in a nun outfit. It’s a long story.
Also appearing here as one of El Greco’s henchmen is Judd Omen, so funny as Mickey, Pee-wee Herman‘s convict pal in Tim Burton‘s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985). Don’t mess with him, he cuts “Do Not Remove Under Penalty of Law” labels off of mattresses! He’s got a really bad temper!
