7/12/2019 Harry Dean Stanton - Biography - IMDb

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Harry Dean Stanton Biography Edit Harry Dean Stanton

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Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (1) | Trivia (12) | Personal Quotes (20) Contact Info (IMDbPro)

Overview (3)
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Born July 14, 1926 in West Irvine, Kentucky, USA

Died September 15, 2017 in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA Share this page:
(natural causes)

Height 5' 8" (1.73 m) User Lists Create a list »

Mini Bio (1) Related lists from IMDb users

Actores favoritos
Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, to Ersel (Moberly), a cook, and Sheridan a list of 25 people
Harry Stanton, a barber and tobacco farmer. Lived in Lexington, Kentucky and graduated created 29 Nov 2014
from Lafayette Senior High School with the class of 1944. Drafted into the Navy, he
served as a cook in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and was on board an LST during
the Battle of Okinawa. He then returned to the University of Kentucky to appear in a Clint's Hollywood
production of "Pygmalion", before heading out to California and honing his craft at the Heroes
prestigious Pasadena Playhouse. Stanton then toured around the United States with a a list of 40 people
male choir, worked in children's theater, and then headed back to California. created 19 May 2015

His first role on screen was in the tepid movie Tomahawk Trail (1957), but he was quickly 20s born
noticed and appeared regularly in minor roles as cowboys and soldiers through the late a list of 29 people
1950s and early 1960s. His star continued to rise and he received better roles in which he created 27 Jun 2017
could showcase his laid-back style, such as in Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kelly's Heroes
(1970), Dillinger (1973), The Godfather: Part II (1974), and in Alien (1979). It was
around this time that Stanton came to the attention of director Wim Wenders, who cast 50+ years in showbiz
him in his finest role yet as Travis in the moving Paris, Texas (1984). Next indie director (since passed away)
Alex Cox gave Stanton a role that brought him to the forefront, in the quirky cult film a list of 33 people
created 05 Apr 2018
Repo Man (1984).

Stanton was now heavily in demand, and his unique look got him cast as everything from If American Pie was an
a suburban father in the mainstream Pretty in Pink (1986) to a soft-hearted, but ill-fated, 80's movie
private investigator in Wild at Heart (1990) and a crazy yet cunning scientist in Escape a list of 22 people
created 4 months ago
from New York (1981). Apart from his film performances, he was also an accomplished
musician, and "The Harry Dean Stanton Band" and their unique spin on mariachi music
played together for well over a decade. They toured internationally. He became a cult See all related lists »
figure of cinema and music and when Debbie Harry sang the lyric, "I want to dance with
Harry Dean..." in her 1990s hit "I Want That Man", she was talking about him. Stanton
remained consistently active on screen, most recently appearing in films including Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), The Green Mile (1999) and The Man Who Cried (2000).

- IMDb Mini Biography By: firehouse44

Trivia (12)

Prior to 1971, he was credited in films and on TV as Dean Stanton so as to avoid any
confusion with character actor Harry Stanton, both of whom would appear together in a
1969 episode of Petticoat Junction (1963). Harry Dean Stanton later co-starred in The
Green Mile (1999), which has a character named Dean Stanton.

Was tied up and pistol-whipped at his home in L.A. after a robbery. The thieves then took
off in the actor's car, but were soon apprehended after the car was traced by a tracking
device. Stanton suffered only minor injuries. [January 1996]

Had a small role as a jail guard in the 1978 Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong film Up in
Smoke (1978), but his scenes were cut.

Critic Roger Ebert so admires him that he created 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." Ebert later admitted that Dream a Little Dream (1989), in
which Stanton appeared, was a "clear violation" of this rule.

Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 45th Venice International Film Festival in
1988.

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7/12/2019 Harry Dean Stanton - Biography - IMDb

Stanton has been named as a favorite actor by characters in novels by Elmore Leonard.
Skip Gibbs, a serial bomber in the novel Freaky Deaky, watches Straight Time (1978)
because Stanton is his favorite actor. Two characters in Leonard's novel Maximum Bob
chat about how much the novel's title character resembles Stanton, an actor they both
admire. Stanton did not appear in the Maximum Bob (1998) TV series, but did have a role
in The Big Bounce (2004), also based on an Elmore Leonard novel.

As of 2014, had appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar:
How the West Was Won (1962), The Godfather: Part II (1974) and The Green Mile
(1999). Of those, only The Godfather: Part II (1974) won in the category.

In an interview with Marc Maron on his WTF Podcast in 2013, Stanton mentioned that he
was offered the lead in an unnamed series as a private investigator for director John
Carpenter, but turned it down as he didn't want so much work (it wasn't said when this
was that the offer or series took place, and it doesn't seem like the series ever got made).

Was in a relationship with Rebecca De Mornay from 1981 to 1983.

He starred in two consecutive films written by Sam Shepard: Paris, Texas (1984) and Fool
for Love (1985). As it happened, he and Shepard died less than two months apart.
Stanton was cremated and his ashes were sprinkled outside downtown Lexington,
Kentucky.

He appeared in two films which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival: Paris,
Texas (1984) and Wild at Heart (1990).

He appeared in six films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the
Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: How the
West Was Won (1962), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Two-Lane
Blacktop (1971), The Godfather: Part II (1974) and Alien (1979).

Personal Quotes (20)

I've been rather like a cat. I'm finicky and I've done a lot of things, and made career
choices, missed meetings and so forth that would have made me a much bigger actor, I
think. But, by the same token, that would have demanded more of my time, too.

[on his role in Paris, Texas (1984)] The whole film evolved on a very organic level. It
almost had a documentary feel to it. It wasn't odd to be in the lead, I took the same
approach as I would to any other part. I play myself as totally as I possibly can. My own
Harry Dean Stanton act . . . I don't know whatever happened to Travis. I'd say . . . it's
me. Still searching for liberation, or enlightenment, for lack of a better way to put it, and
realizing that it might happen, it might not.

I've always been a singer; it's not new to me. I've been singing since I was a child. I've
always had a guitar and a harmonica and I played drums in high school -- in a marching
band, anyway. I like different kinds of music and I'm exploring them: ballads, blues,
blues-rock, country rock, whatever. I'm just focusing on singing a lot so I can get good at
it. But don't say I play "country music." It's just another label, like "character actor." One
term simply can't say it all.

I'm a late bloomer. It's just a matter of how you evolve; of what your pace is. Hopefully,
the older you get the more you grow. So, that has been my speed, the beat of my drum. I
march to the beat of a different drum -- you'll pardon me for using this expression.

Early on the whole point of acting was mostly getting a job and then the experience of
doing it. But when I did Ride in the Whirlwind (1966) with Jack Nicholson in 1965 I
discovered there was more to it than that. It was a key film for me because of that. Jack
told me not to do anything, just let the wardrobe do the acting. It was a great revelation
that became an acting principle. To be rather than to do. You have to behave on screen as
much as you do in real life. You don't kill anyone in life, but you understand the anger
that may bring it about.

I felt very much at home on the stage, more so than off it because I could express
everything that I couldn't express elsewhere -- yes, anger, but also tenderness. It's not
always easy to be as gentle as you wish to be.

As a child, I felt rage against adults who didn't treat me as a person, adults that were
brutalized themselves by having an angry, vindictive God watching them all the time. I
come from a broken home and I realize it's the rule rather than the exception.

Hopefully it's a life positive thing that I've been been blessed to be balled into for a lack of
a better way to put it. I find younger people less conditioned and therefore more alive. I
don't take a paternal or authority position with them; I don't play mentor. I try to relate
to them on a peer level. I'm trying to function totally in the moment.

It's certainly not an ideal situation. I don't want to be whipping myself to the point where
I have no joy in doing it, you know? But that has been a problem with too many artists --
too much pain and not enough joy. I want to be able to work and enjoy it more and it
takes a lifetime to learn that. I'm enjoying it more and more; I'm learning that. Someone

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7/12/2019 Harry Dean Stanton - Biography - IMDb
printed on a Thai temple, "How joyous I am now that I've learned there's no such thing as
happiness." Pretty good, huh?

Acting is my connection to the community, with the world at large. I hope what I do
benefits the community without being moralizing.

I've always felt as an outsider. I've been rebellious against any iconoclastic thing. It's true
about the industry, but also about society as a whole. I don't blame anyone, but I think
that society is negative in that people are terrified to be free. I was born on the edge of
the mountains in Kentucky and now although I live in Hollywood I still feel more related to
nature. It's an attitude. I have a pool, but it's to do laps in, not a status symbol.

Usually, I just play myself. Whatever psychological traumas or conflicts I'm going through
at the time I try to put into the role. Sometimes it's quite a feat to pull off, but sometimes
it works. If it doesn't correspond to the dilemmas of the character, then I don't do the
film.

[on his disdain for labels] When you label something, you dismiss it.

Ultimately the atomic physicists - Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and Martin Heisenberg - all
agreed that science couldn't answer the mystery of the universe. So I was impressed with
all that. Once it gets organized - even if it's Buddhism or Taoism or Kabbalah - I'm not a
member. Einstein said Buddhism was the only religion that could cope with modern
scientific needs. So they arrived at the same place the Buddhists did 2,500 years ago.
There's no answer to any of it. That's liberating. It's an enlightening concept.

I learn about myself. There is no self. You learn you're not a self. You learn you're nothing.
Ultimately. Hopefully.

When you're deep asleep and not dreaming, where the fuck are you? There's total
blackness, it's nothing, right? So I'm hoping that's what death is, that it's all gonna go. I
don't want to deal with any consciousness afterward.

[asked to describe himself] As nothing. There is no self...I'm big into Eastern concepts.
The horror of life, the love of children, the whole phantasmagoria--it's all meaningless. Be
still and see what happens. All of this unfolds perfectly, You've got to get beyond
consciousness.

You get older. In the end, you end up accepting everything in your life - suffering, horror,
love, loss, hate - all of it. It's all a movie anyway, the whole phantasmagoria - it's all
meaningless. There is no answer to any of it ultimately. It's just what is. There is only the
moment. Be still and see what happens. All of this unfolds perfectly. You've got to get
beyond consciousness.

If I like the role, I'll just do it. I don't care how small it is. There are no small parts. You
know that old saying, right? There are only small actors.

I've avoided the mainstream, I guess. Too much work. Regret is another form of
suffering, which I'm not into. It's pointless. If I did regret, I'd have a lot of regrets, but
ultimately you have to accept what you do and what happens. It doesn't matter.
Whatever.

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