Harry Dean Stanton

Harry Dean Stanton (1926--2017) got his start in Hollywood in TV productions such as Zane Grey Theater and Gunsmoke. After a series of minor parts in forgettable westerns, he gradually began to get film roles that showcased his laid-back acting style, appearing in Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), The Godfather: Part II (1974), and Alien (1979). He became a headliner in the eighties -- starring in Wim Wenders's moving Paris, Texas (1984) and Alex Cox's Repo Man (1984) -- but it was his extraordinary skill as a character actor that established him as a revered cult figure and kept him in demand throughout his career. Joseph B. Atkins unwinds Stanton's enigmatic persona in the first biography of the man Vanity Fair memorialized as "the philosopher poet of character acting." He sheds light on Stanton's early life in West Irvine, Kentucky, exploring his difficult relationship with his Baptist parents, his service in the Navy, and the events that inspired him to drop out of college and pursue acting. Atkins also chronicles Stanton's early years in California, describing how he honed his craft at the renowned Pasadena Playhouse before breaking into television and movies. In addition to examining the actor's acclaimed body of work, Atkins also explores Harry Dean Stanton as a Hollywood legend, following his years rooming with Jack Nicholson, partying with David Crosby and Mama Cass, jogging with Bob Dylan, and playing poker with John Huston. "HD Stanton" was scratched onto the wall of a jail cell in Easy Rider (1969) and painted on an exterior concrete wall in Drive, He Said (1971). Critic Roger Ebert so admired the actor that he suggested the "Stanton-Walsh Rule," which states that "no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad." Harry Dean Stanton is often remembered for his crowd-pleasing roles in movies like Pretty in Pink (1986) or Escape from New York (1981), but this impassioned biography illuminates the entirety of his incredible sixty-year career. Drawing on interviews with the actor's friends, family, and colleagues, this much-needed book offers an unprecedented look at a beloved figure.

Early Days in Hollywood

Harry Dean Stanton arrived in Hollywood with solid stage training and confidence he would be a star at a time of great change in the film industry with the challenges of television, lingering bitterness over the communist witch hunting of the U.S. House for Un-American Activities Committee, and the steady decline of the studio system. After a bit part in Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956), Harry Dean began to pick up more substantive roles on television and in Westerns like Tomahawk Trail (1957) and The Proud Rebel (1958) with Alan Ladd and Olivia de Havilland. He joined character actors Royal Dano, Jack Elam, and Dub Taylor to become one of the increasingly familiar faces on television's The Untouchables, Laramie, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, and Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater. Some of his fellow actors in supporting roles, like Warren Oates and Lee Van Cleef, would go on to become stars. For Harry Dean, the road was much longer.

Toward Understanding the Biodiversity of Gromiids: the Fine Structure of Gromia sp. from Zane Grey Creek, Florida Keys

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, August 7–August 11, 2011.