George Gaynes and Harper Lee, Remembered
Posted by Leah on
2/20/2016 12:39:16 PM
Unfortunately today is another day that I need to bring you news of 2 Hollywood passings. First I’ll tell you about the life of actor George Gaynes, and then I’ll tell you about Harper Lee. (Although I realize that Harper Lee’s isn’t really a Hollywood death, in the traditional sense, I felt it pertinent to write something about her since To Kill a Mokingbird, the book and the movie, are so iconic.)
Actor George Gaynes passed away at his daughter’s house in North Bend, Washington on Monday, February 15, 2016 at the age of 98.
Gaynes was another, in what’s turning into a fairly large group of actors, who’s career in TV and film didn’t begin until later in life. His break off Broadway and onto TV occurred at the age of 49 in The Would be Gentleman on NBC’s Television Opera Theater. After that performance it occurred to Gaynes that he’d rather focus on acting, instead of opera, at which point he was able to land parts in a variety of TV shows including Bonanza, Mission: Impossible, Hogan’s Heroes and The Patty Duke Show, to name a few.
Although he played bit parts in a few movies up until then, his real movie break didn’t happen until 1973, as El Morocco Captain in the movie The Way We Were. The next 9 years of his career featured more of the same, with bit parts and TV characters, until his now famous role as John Van Horn, Dustin Hoffman’s in-drag love interest, in the film Tootsie. Two years later he landed the role as Commandant Lassard in what went on to be all 7 of the Police Academy films.
But for my generation, George Gaynes will always be remembered for is his role as the cranky foster father, Henry Warnimont in the NBC series Punky Brewster. He said in an interview about the character, “It turned out he was basically a very kind and generous man, which he covered up with his surface gruffness and his surface blusteriness. We had a good time doing it.”
Jonathan Howard, Gaynes’s long time agent summed it up best when he said, “The last couple times I got in touch with him, even in his 90s, he was always happy to take the call and consider something. He was really one of the true gentlemen in this business and was working steadily for 50 years or more. A sad, sad loss. But he had a really long, great life.”
And now I’ll tell you about Harper Lee. Harper Lee, who is famous for her timeless novel To Kill a Mockingbird, died Friday, February 19, 2016 at her home in Monroeville, Alabama at the age of 89. Her’s, I think, is the most difficult of all of the lives I’ve had to sum up within a few paragraphs.
Since just after its publication in 1960, Lee has been known as both a recluse and a literary icon. Before publishing the book, Lee and her publisher thought they’d be lucky to break even. They thought with its themes of racism and rape that the public would shun the book; they couldn’t have been more wrong. According to The Washington Post, the book has sold over 40 million copies to date, and continues to be required reading for many high schoolers throughout the country.
Mary Murphy, director of the documentary Hey, Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a Mockingbird, says of the author’s reported reclusiveness, “Harper Lee was not a recluse. She was not holed up in her house like Boo Radley — unless of course, you were a reporter, and then she was not going to talk to you. I think that's a big distinction."
The film version of the book came out in 1962. Lee is quoted as saying of the film, “I think it is one of the best translations of a book to film ever made.” And she was right. The film was nominated for 8 Oscars, and of those took home 3, one for Best Actor for Gregory Peck’s performance as Atticus Finch, one for Best Writing and one for Best Art Direction. During filming Peck and Lee became life-long friends. After filming wrapped, Lee gave Peck her father's pocket watch. Years later, Peck's grandson, Harper Peck Voll, was named for the author.
Wayne Flynt, her friend and professor at Auburn University said of Lee’s publishing only one major work in her lifetime, “I suppose what I would say is that there are some writers who have one great story to tell and they tell that one great story.”
Lynn Neary of NPR sums up Lee’s life best in her article The Measure Of Harper Lee: A Life Shaped By A Towering Text, “Despite our best attempts to confine Lee's life to the pages she wrote and the characters she created, her own life far exceeded the bounds of her book covers. Lee was more than Atticus, Scout and Tom; she was more than the author of To Kill a Mockingbird. And, perhaps, she often remembered that fact much better than the rest of us.”
And so, if you’re like me and To Kill a Mockingbird wasn’t required reading for you, I urge you to read it, and then see the film. If you read it in high school, but haven’t again, please revisit it. It is a novel that is more than worth the time it takes to read it, and although its lessons may seem old and outdated, they are far more pertinent, even now, than one may think.