You preferred playing it for fun, but that never stopped you from plunging into two-fisted adventure, including such pulp-pierced jaunts as "Gator"; "Hooper": "Malone"; "Shamus": "Sam Whiskey"; "100 Rifles"; "Impasse"; "Hard Ground"; "City Heat"; "Shark!" (aka "Man-Eater"); "Sharky's Machine"; "White Lightning": "Bean"; "Smokey and the Bandit"; "The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing" and of course, Sergio Corbucci's spaghetti epic, "Navajo Joe", plus an impressive three-year run on the legendary "Gunsmoke".
To extend your remarkable abilities even further, you admirably gave horror a whirl, supplying stand-out performances in "Deliverance" (come now, is there anything more horror driven?); "Haunting in Hollow Creek"; "The Maddening"; and the coming-of-age "Frankenstein and Me".
To supplement these, you tackled the lead in the pensive, missing-linked "Skullduggery," had tons of fun in Peter Bogdanovich's nostalgic "Nickelodeon" and voiced Charlie B. Barkin in Don Bluth's endearing "All Dogs Go to Heaven". You guest starred on "The X-Files" and gave viewers the best, unofficial, Brando impersonation conceivable in Rod Serling's comedic, "Twilight Zone" tale, "The Bard".
I don't care what anyone says: You deserved a damn Oscar for "The Last Movie Star". So, hold your head high, unleash your inimitable laugh and let those wheels peel straight on past the Pearly Gates. A cavalcade of appreciative Hollywood greats are there to great you.
