2006-05-27 - 10:18 a.m.
Deaths seem to come in threes. When Nya or I notice that a famous person has died, we wait for the next one to go and then challenge each other to complete the trifecta. This of course has the sick joy of calling someone�s fate. But you also get a great deal of satisfaction from picking the best person to finish the trio.
Ideally, you want to choose someone in a field unrelated to the other two. You also want to choose someone with a similar degree of relative fame. And to make it perfect, you want to see if some theme can be found connecting the first two and draw it out with your chosen third.
Back in February, Nya emailed me to say that pioneering feminist author Betty Friedan and TV�s Al Lewis a.k.a �Grandpa Munster� had died on the same day. Who was next? Unfortunately I couldn�t find much connection between Betty Friedan and Grandpa Munster other than they had been big in the early 1960s.
So I said Tiny Tim. �Tiptoe through the Tulips� was released in 1968, so a little later, but I felt like he was inherently from an earlier time, more oddball-Beatnik than hippie. Although I found out later that he had already died in 1996, Nya was impressed with the speed, funniness, and (most importantly) aptness of my response.
A few days ago former Senator (and 1988 Democratic vice-presidential candidate) Lloyd Bentsen died. Yesterday, original-wave ska legend Desmond Dekker had a fatal heart attack (at only 64). Who will be next? I�ve thought about this and predict it will be an actor.
At first, I thought it might be Adam West, TV�s Batman from the �60s. But then I realized that, in addition to being a bit silly by association with his campy character, he was far less prominent in his field than Bentsen or Dekker. Then I thought ah, it should be a �70s macho man.
Burt Reynolds came to mind. He�s not that old, but he could have a stroke or something. But Burt Reynolds is sort of a household name. He�s perhaps too famous. The other two were giants in their fields, but you had to be familiar with politics or ska to really know them.
I thought about Reynolds� career and then I realized who it would actually be. I say it will be his costar from Deliverance, Jon Voigt. Certainly a quality actor and a �70s macho man, but not a name that would immediately spring to mind. You kind of have to know film to put him up in the pantheon.
Nya noted that the theme uniting Lloyd Bentsen and Desmond Dekker is the unfulfilled promise they both presented. Bentsen was a generally moderate Democrat, but the Dukakis-Bentsen ticket of 1988 represented the possibility of the country being run by dignified and intellectual (if a bit wonky) people. It never happened and we got George H. W. Bush instead�
Desmond Dekker was a ska pioneer in the 1960s. �King of Ska�, �007 (Shanty Town)�, �You Can Get It If You Really Want� (although this was written by Jimmy Cliff), �Israelites� (during the Two-Tone era), I could go on. But Jamaican music didn�t really emerge on world consciousness until later, probably after the mid-70s Bob Marley era.
By then, the beat had slowed down to the roots reggae style. Desmond Dekker basically spent the rest of his life trying to cash in on the music he had helped start, but had passed him by. Oh, he had some brief success (as noted) in the early 1980s, with the Two-Tone ska revival. But by 1984, he was bankrupt.
I would submit that Jon Voigt, in his own way, also presents unrealized promise. In the 1970s, there is no question that he was kind of a fiery hunk. Check out Midnight Cowboy or Deliverance or even Coming Home (OK, I admit I�m partial to the film, despite Hanoi Jane, because he�s in a wheelchair).
But today, he�s just a fairly sedate and pretty bloated old guy, most famous for being Angelina Jolie�s father. His thinking man�s dreamboat role doesn�t seem to have matured well (whereas Burt Reynolds seems to have grown into an older symbol of virility who must be respected).
I challenge you to pick a better third. Lloyd Bentsen died, then Desmond Dekker. Who�s next? Sign my guestbook or leave a note.
� 2006 Geoff Gladstone
Update May 29 �
The trifecta has been completed, although not in the way I expected. It was indeed an actor who filled the slot: Paul Gleason. You�re saying: huh, who? He played the principal in The Breakfast Club.
See, like Lloyd Bentsen and Desmond Dekker, the average person wouldn�t immediately recognize his name. But you know him once you�re told what he did.
Lloyd Bentsen, you know the 1988 Democratic vice-presidential candidate. Oh, yeah!
Desmond Dekker, he sang �You Can Get It If You Really Want� from The Harder They Come soundtrack. Got it!
Paul Gleason, he was Principal Vernon from The Breakfast Club. Aha! �Don�t mess with the bull, young man. You�ll get the horns.�
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