“I said to him [actor Ian Holm], ‘What are you doing next?’ And Ian, who was always in the best way choosy, said he was doing the Kafka film with Jeremy Irons. Then he said, ‘So what are you doing?’ I said, ‘I’m doing a thing called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.’”—English actor David Warner (1941-2022), quoted in Neil Genzlinger, “David Warner, Actor Who Played Villains and More, Dies at 80,” The New York Times, July 25, 2022
The year he won the first of his two Best Supporting
Actor Oscars, Michael Caine was unable to pick up his statuette for his Hannah
and Her Sisters because he was on location for another, rather more
forgettable, film: Jaws, The Revenge.
Caine, with more than 175 film credits (and counting)
on his resume, might be in the best position to understand the attitude towards
work and roles exemplified by the late David Warner.
Why are such actors so prolific, so accepting of
whatever jobs they are offered? Do they like the chance to work with a certain
director or co-star? Is the money irresistible? Is the job a nice change of
pace from what they usually do? Do they just figure the hell with it—who knows
how, when all is said and done, after the director and studio wrestle over the
footage, the picture will turn out, anyhow? Or are they just fearful of never
working again, and figure they’ll take what they can get?
With Warner, there might be another factor involved in
all those movies: his relative lack of stage credits. After a sterling
beginning in the Sixties, Warner came down with such a terrible case of stage
fright that he did not appear in a theatrical role until he played munitions
titan Andrew Undershaft in of George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara.
I saw him in that Roundabout Theatre show back in
2001, but was so annoyed at the normally estimable Cherry Jones’ in the title
role that I didn’t appreciate how lucky I was to catch Warner in such a rare
appearance.
Whatever the reason or reasons involved, Warner
certainly made his share of movies—about 225, or more than even Caine has
appeared in so far. You might not recall his name, but there’s a good chance
you’ve seen one of his films—or will soon.
In fact, the weekend following his death, I caught one
of his appearances from quite a while ago: one of those Perry Mason made-for-TV
movies that Raymond Burr made two decades after his long-running hourly series
went off the air, now showing up again on MeTV.
In this case, Warner made a fast but memorable
appearance as a not-very-likable murder victim in The Case of the Poisoned Pen. (Evidently, the experience was agreeable enough for both
parties that he came back for another one of those Mason TV movies three years
later.)
But the movies that cropped up repeatedly in his
obituaries were The Omen (source of the still accompanying this post), Titanic,
Tron, and various films in the Star Trek franchise. With that long, lean face, he was fated for character actor rather than leading man roles. It might
not have made him the most prominent actor in Hollywood, but it did make him
among those you’d see the most.
And sometimes, you didn’t even have to see him. His
voice made him a natural not just for sci-fi and thrillers, but also voice-over
work in animated movies and games, as discussed in this piece by Riordan
Zentler of the Spokane Spokesman-Review.
I’m sorry that Warner is gone now, besides the fact
that one hates to see the end of a performer of such versatility. Remarkably
for his profession—and especially for one admired so much by his peers—he seems
to have had a refreshing lack of ego.
After all, he may have played countless villains, but
anyone who can joke about being in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The
Secret of the Ooze can’t be that bad a guy.
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