R.I.P Phillip Baker Hall (1 Viewer)

[Alex...]

https://www.thewrap.com/philip-baker-hall-star-of-magnolia-and-boogie-nights-dies-at-90/​

 

[TravisR]

An absolute top shelf actor. Everyone rightly remembers the PT Anderson work but I have a soft spot for this performance:

 

[Desslar]

I remember him from... well, everything.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Another favorite of mine is Hall as Nixon in Altman's Secret Honor. I believe the performance that made Anderson want to work with him. It is a barnburner. Hall is riveting as Nixon. He was an actor's actor.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

An absolute top shelf actor. Everyone rightly remembers the PT Anderson work but I have a soft spot for this performance:

I was not a Seinfeld watcher but my wife was and she pointed this episode out to me because it actually happened to me. It was pretty much on this level as well...minus the coffee or tea.

 

[Matt Hough]

Yes, he was one of those wonderfully reliable actors that turned up all the time on TV and in movies and did impeccable work. He will be much missed.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Loved him in Anderson’s first film Hard Eight.

 

[joshEH]

PTA's use of him will always take first place -- his scene in Boogie Nights is basically Burt Reynolds' Oscar-clip -- but the part in The Insider where Pacino screams at Hall's character and Wallace turns to him and goes, "You fucked up, Don," is an all-timer. Not to mention Midnight Run.

What a great character-actor. May he find that Heaven has all the butter that one man's ass can handle.

 

[Jeffrey D]

He was in another favorite of mine- Fincher’s Zodiac.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

He was excellent in Secret Honor. Rest In Peace.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I remember him from... well, everything.

You nailed it. There isn't one particular performance than leaps out at me as his quintessential work, but he gave us decades of terrific supporting performances in movies and TV. One of the great television guest stars.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

You nailed it. There isn't one particular performance than leaps out at me as his quintessential work, but he gave us decades of terrific supporting performances in movies and TV. One of the great television guest stars.

Well, because Secret Honor is his film, he is the star and only actor in it, and he has to hold the screen and your attention the entire time, that to me always feels like the performance of his career. I used to always say about him that of course he is great in all the small parts he plays, those are like asking Hercules to fight a butterfly. After seeing him give an epic Shakespearian performance where he goes totally mad as Nixon for an entire film, asking him to walk on and deliver a few lines and be riveting is nothing. He could do that in his sleep.

To me, he was a movie star and what I mean by that is the camera loved him. Not because he was beautiful or because of his acting talent...he was one of those people that you put in front of a camera and was just naturally expressive. He was like a Hackman or a Duvall. We could call him a character actor but when he had a scene he lifted whatever he was in up several levels.

You can't overvalue what a guy like Hall had. It goes beyond talent and beyond skill. It is that unique thing where the camera just soaks a person in. Hackman was drenched in it. So, was Duvall. Hall had that, maybe not at the level of those two guys but he had it. I see so many actors in pictures today that are beautiful people, gorgeous to look at, but the camera regards them as if they were a fence post. Movies need people like Hall and he will be missed.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I remember him from... well, everything.

In a lot of ways that says it all about him and basically defines a person that the camera loves. They walk on, do their thing and you remember them because they stand out for all the right reasons.

 

[bujaki]

An actor's actor. Period. RIP.

 

[Bartman]

We happened on him in Argo last night on Netflix. I also recommend Hard Eight that has been on Prime with a great transfer. He always gave a great performance. RIP.