Bad boys turn out good performances
In the early nineties, it seemed like there was no one who could
get in as much trouble as Kelsey Grammer. Kelsey Grammer? Yes, that
Kelsey Grammer, who played the stuffy Frasier Crane for 20 years on
both
”
Cheers
”
and
”
Frasier,
”
had countless run ins with the law.
Bad boys turn out good performances
In the early nineties, it seemed like there was no one who could get in as much trouble as Kelsey Grammer. Kelsey Grammer? Yes, that Kelsey Grammer, who played the stuffy Frasier Crane for 20 years on both “Cheers” and “Frasier,” had countless run ins with the law.
In 1988, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail for drunk driving and possession of cocaine. He would have many more confrontations over driving under the influence and posession of illegal drugs in the next eight years. In Sept. 1996, he flipped his Dodge viper while driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. After that incicent, he checked himself into the Betty Ford clinic for 30 days.
Grammer was able to straighten himself out and keep his career under control. He’s one of the lucky ones. Many other Hollywood bad boys never quite cleaned up their acts, though they left behind some good TV and movie clips along the way.
Robert Blake
Blake started out acting in 1939 when he was 6 years old. He worked in the Little Rascals short films and had a small part in 1948’s “The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre” working alongside Humphrey Bogart.
He worked steadily on TV and in the movies as he grew up. In 1967, he gave a great performance in the film adaption of “In Cold Blood.” He contninued with standout perfomances in movies such as “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here” (1969), “Electra Glide In Blue” (1973) and “Busting” (1974). In 1975, he took on the role that would change his career in the TV series “Baretta.”
Tony Baretta was an undercover cop who lived in a fleabag hotel with his pet cockatoo, Fred. He always caught the bad guy in the end. The show lasted three seasons. Blake won an Emmy for his portrayal.
I liked “Baretta” because Robert Blake is a short guy like me. At only 5’4, Blake never wore lifts. It was good to see a little guy who was built like I am beating up the bad guys.
The show wasn’t cancelled because of bad ratings, but because the studio executives couldn’t get along with Blake. Blake caused trouble every day on the set and fought with his costars, directors and producers. A perfectionist, he made them rewrite scripts at the last minute. He was also using drugs.
After the show was cancelled Blake starred in a series of made for TV movies about a private detective named Joe Dancer. In 1985, he tried another series called “Hell Town” about a tough priest working at a skid row parish. It only lasted one season. After that, he pretty much disappeared.
In the late ’90s, he worked in a few feature films such as “Money Train” with Wesley Snipes, but stayed out of the news until 2001 when his wife was shot and killed outside of a resturant where they had just eaten dinner. In April 2002, he was arrested and charged in connection with the murder of his wife.
After a lengthy trial, Blake was aquitted for the murder in 2005. He has stayed out of the public eye since then. He was found liable in a civil case and was ordered to pay his wife’s family $30 million dollars. Blake is now working on a ranch. He has always said playing Baretta ruined his career.
Jan-Michael Vincent
Vincent was the highest paid actor on TV when he starred in the series “Airwolf” from 1984 to 1986, but after the show’s cancellation, his career took a downturn.
Vincent was born in 1944 and grew up in Southern California. He started acting in TV and worked with John Wayne in the 1969 film “The Undefeated.” During the ’70s, he gave good performances in solid B films such as “White Line Fever,” “Baby Blue Marine,” “Big Wednesday” and “The Mechanic” with Charles Bronson. He was the first choice for the Hooper role in “JAWS.” He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance in the 1983 miniseries “The Winds Of War,” which led to his being cast in “Airwolf.”
“Airwolf” was about Stringfellow Hawke who pilots the airwolf helicopter for a U.S. agency so he can look for his brother who went missing in Vietnam. The action was good and it had a great cast including Ernest Borgnine. It was cancelled early because of Vincent’s growing alcohol problem. Vincent’s stuntman had died during filming and he became guilty over his death and started to drink.
During the filming of the 1996 movie “Red Line,” he was in a car crash and showed up to work with his face swollen and bruised. That same year, he flipped his car while drunk and broke his neck. He also damaged his vocal cords which left his voice raspy and unitelligible.
I really liked Jan-Michael Vincent. Growing up, I always wished that I could be him. My favorite movie with him is “Defiance” where he plays a merchant marine who takes on a street gang in New York City. Some of his later movies are “Jurassic Women,” “Alienator” and “Escape To Grizzly Mountain.” According to reports, he is living in Mississippi somewhere. I wish Quentin Tarantino would find him and stick him in a movie.
Robert Pastorelli
In 1997 my favorite TV show was “Cracker” with Robert Pastorelli. It was an American remake of a BBC show about a brilliant psychologist named Gerry Fitzgerald who helps the police catch killers. Fitzgerald was an intriguing character. He was an alcoholic and compulsive gambler whose marriage and home life were falling apart. The best thing about the show was Pastorelli’s great acting. He always looked hungover.
Pastorelli started on TV in 1982 as a guest star on “Barney Miller.” He worked steadily on TV, but it wasn’t until “Murphy Brown” starring Candice Bergen that he began to get noticed. Pastorelli played Eldin Bernecky for seven seasons. He was nominated for an emmy award in 1995. He also had roles in “Dances With Wolves,” “Striking Distance” and “Eraser.”
A former boxer from New Jersey, Pastorelli had already battled a herion addiction before his stardom. In 1999, his girlfriend and mother of his daughter was found shot to death at his home. Pastorelli continued working and doing drugs. In 2004, he was found in his bathroom dead from a herion overdose. The syringe was still in his arm. He had just been named a person of interest in the death of his girlfriend. His last movie role was in “Be Cool” and his last TV appearance was in “Hack” in 2003.
It’s hard to say whether Lohan can come back from her recent troubles. Maybe she should concetrate on TV. It worked for Charlie Sheen. It’s just too bad that none of the actors listed above were able to stage a comeback.
