Really torn on favorite performance:
My nominees are:
Cocoon
The Thing
The China Syndrome
The Natural
Absence of Malice
I think I am going with The Natural. That movie does not work without the audience rooting fiercely for Pop.
RIP Wilford. Not COVID related. Talented actor. I need to pour out some oatmeal in his honor.
Really torn on favorite performance:
My nominees are:
Cocoon
The Thing
The China Syndrome
The Natural
Absence of Malice
I think I am going with The Natural. That movie does not work without the audience rooting fiercely for Pop.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
I enjoyed his subtly menacing performance in ‘The Firm.’
As someone who has it, he will always be Mr. Diabetes(said in his odd manner)
Despite his occasional and distinct lack of couth, some of the old Imus show impressions of Wilford were quite marvelous.
I second this. Once I ran through the oatmeal jokes in my head, he was a sufficiently scary antagonist.
Also want to mention In & Out. Like with The Firm, it was weird casting at first. You could easily picture him as a small town Midwesterner, but he’s not an obvious choice to play the husband of Debbie Reynolds and the father of Kevin Kline. Still, his gruff frankness works well in that film.
I debated including The Firm on my list but it felt like such a smaller role than the others in terms of its importance to the film. He was wonderful as the head of security for Bendini, Lambert, and Locke but he is no more than the 5th most important character in the film (Cruise, Hackman, Tripplehorn, and Hunter are all more significant... and several others are on par with him).
It is memorable but I think his MVP performance was either The Natural or Cocoon.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
I don’t know. When I think of The Firm I immediately think of Tom Cruise and Wilford Brimley.
Brimley: “Here’s your Abby, one day, walking to the mailbox anticipating the arrival of her Redbook or Sharper Image catalogue. What does she find instead? She finds heartache, Mitch. The death of love and trust. Imagine her opening that (as he hands Mitch a Manila folder containing incriminating photos).” Classic.
As an aside, who could forget Brimley being the only person in cinema history to be beaten to death by a soft leather briefcase? You can’t make this stuff up. Great movie overall with a memorable and subtly menacing performance by Wilford Brimley.