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R.I.P. George Pan Cosmatos
Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Dr. Hfuhruhurr is a good friend of mine, and he frequently invites Obi-Swan and I to idle away good hours at a local cigar club where he’s a member. One of the great joys of that club has been sitting and talking with any number of unusual Hollywood figures, like Temuera Morrison or John Millius, getting lost in conversations that just meander about any number of topics.
Some of the greatest evenings we spent up there were in the company of George Pan Cosmatos, director of TOMBSTONE and RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART 2. He was a gentleman, a collosally entertaining storyteller, and a generous soul. Anything I could write about him, Dr. Hfuhruhurr already said better in the e-mail I got just a few minutes ago:
This is Dr. Hfuhruhurr reporting in with some sad news about the passing of a sweet, passionate, occasionally gruff but charmingly cynical film director and life long film lover named George P. Cosmatos. This is the first time I've ever had to write something like this so please bear with me if I ramble because I have had the pleasure of knowing George for the past four years and he had become a dear friend.
I enjoyed nothing more than having a cigar with him and listening as he talked about his experiences as a director or about one of his favorie films as a fan. When this man talked about the artform of cinema, he lit up so much that it would often light my cigar at the same time. You never saw someone so gleeful or enthusiastic as George when he talked about shots from Hitchcock films, music cues from John Ford westerns, the beauty of Grave Kelly... and when he discovered a film I hadn't seen, like CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS or I AM CUBA, for example, he would get me so excited to see it that I'd stop at every video store on the way home until I found a copy. George never led me astray with his recommendations. The next time I'd bump into him, he wanted to know if I saw it yet (it was spoken with an implied threat of bodily harm if I hadn't!). When I said I had seen it, he'd smile and we'd sit down and talk about the film for hours (actually he'd talk and I'd listen). He would often give me a shot-by-shot analysis that was like having my own private film historian on hand. I truly believe that he has seen ever film ever made (and considering that he got his start as a film critic, this is probably true).
For several years prior to our first meeting, George and I had been members of the same cigar club in Beverly Hills. He was one of the regulars and every time he walked in he was treated with the utmost respect, like he was a mafia Don. He could be gruff, in the old Zorba the Greek kind of way, but everyone soon realized that he was a teddy bear underneath. As for me, having grown up in the 80's, I'd always get excited. "That's George Cosmatos! The man who made Rambo!" I always wanted to introduce myself, but I was too chicken to approach him. Then one crowded day at the club when I was sitting on a sofa reading a script, I heard this gruff, accented voice: "Mind if I join you?" I looked up and saw George, big cigar in his mouth, not waiting for my reply to sit down next to me. My heart was racing but I was afraid to say anything to him. Luckily he broke the ice and when he discovered that I was a screenwriter he bagan to talk film. And talk and talk and talk. It was mesmerizing. All I kept thinking was "Holy Shit! I'm sitting here smoking cigars and talking film with the man who made Rambo!"
I finally mustered up the courage to tell Geroge I had been a huge Rambo fan and had seen it eight times during it's summer-long stay at my local theater (for those of you who find this odd, please remember that I'm this site's token right-winger!). It was then that I learned that George did not like being known as the guy who made RAMBO. He was proud of, if not baffled by, its success, but when he talked about RAMBO, all he wanted to talk about was the great pleasure he had working with Jack Cardiff, the master cinematographer who shot that film. He went on for at least an hour about Jack's lifetime of work. George was much prouder of his earlier work, films like THE CASSANDRA CROSSING and his earlier foreign films and the great movie star he had the pleasure of working with (he loved the word "pleasure"). He was also quite proud of TOMBSTONE, a film that was damn good to begin with but keeps on getting better with age. Nevertheless, George humored me with a few Rambo and Cobra stories. From that day on whenever I saw George by himself (and he looked like he was in a good mood) I'd sit down next to him and get another film history/appreciation lesson. It was priceless and I'll treasure those days forever.
Two of George's three great passions in life were film and art which is why it was heartbreaking and tragic when he lost his vision last year due to a freak accident (or, if you'll indulge my anger -- due to the complete incompetence of Canada's socialized medicine/ butchery system). What should have been a routine operation (and I know because I had the same surgery myself) turned into a nightmare. I'll never forget the phone call I got from him a few days after his surgery. "They blinded me!" He sounded so scared and fragile, a world away from the gruff, boisterous, passionate old Greek I had known before We had all hoped that it was just a temporary side effect but unfortunatley we were wrong. From almost the time it happened Geroge mentally retreated into a waking dream state where he believed he could "see." It was the only way he could cope. This man's life had been visual, he was on the verge of making his directorial comeback and now he was blind. It was devastating to watch his mental and emotional retreat. But who could blame him?
George P. Cosmatos passed away last week after a year or darkness, the likes of which we would never even want to imagine. I felt like I had been sucker punched when I heard the news. I was half expecting to see him show up at the cigar club one day, big ol' Cuban in his mouth, saying "Can you believe it!? I can see again!" I was sad, angry, confused. How could this happen? Last year he was telling me I had to drop everything and rent CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS and now he was gone. It was a sad, cruel, uncalled for bit of cosmic injustice.
Then I remembered George's third great passion in life (and number one on his list):his late wife whom he had lost a few years ago and whom he had missed terribly every day since. He spoke of her often and which such pure devotion and love that it could turn the worst cynic (such as myself) into a hopless romantic. A couple of times when I visited him after he lost his vision, he would be happily talking to someone who wasn't there. I'd interupt to tell him I was there and he would smile and introduce me to his wife.. I believe she was with him all through his blidness, providing an inner light during every moment of his darkness. And now I believe that he is completely bathed in light, reunited with her at last, and spending an eternity together in a beautiful after-life that is lit like a Jack Cardiff film. And I'm
sure he thinks it is a pleasure to be there.
And George, my dear friend, it has been my pleasure to have known you. I'll never look at movies the same.George is survived by his son, Panos, one hell of a good guy in his own right, and our condolences go out not only to him, but to everyone who had the chance to know George and enjoy his company.
"Moriarty" out.
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Moriarty, you wrote an excellent tribute to a great man. I wish he had made more movies, but the ones he left us with are timeless. He will be missed
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One of the greatest westerns made. I frequently screen it in our home theater and it truly does get better with age. R.I.P.
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I have to say that while I am not a huge fan of George ( I loved the two movies named Rambo and Tombstone) this was an amazingly well written article that has encouraged me to look up some more of George's films. Well done.
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Wonderful tribute, and Cosmatos was a fantastic filmmaker, but what's up with this generalized, sweeping statement -
"(or, if you'll indulge my anger -- due to the complete incompetence of Canada's socialized medicine/ butchery system)." -
I need to see more of his works, but Rambo II and Tombstone are some wonderfully made films and pure enjoyment to watch. Think I'll watch Tombstone tomorrow in homage.
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Oh. OK, that guy. R.I. P.
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The best films have you feeling real emotions, as if the situation was actually happening with you there. I wanted to stand up and cheer when Doc Holliday walks out of the shadows to his showdown with Johnny Ringo. Only a master director has the ability to make a scene work so beautifully.
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Damn - that articles put a lump in my throat - Cosmatos obviously knew what real cinema was and knew how to appreciate it - Rambo was fucking great - the pinnacle of shite 80's action, Cobra...well let's change the subject - but Tombstone? that fucking rocked!
Cosmatos was old school - he could pull a good film out of his hat when required - RIP mate. -
Didn't realize he was an older guy.I always pictured Cosmatos as being around James Cameron or John McTiernan's age.Besides his passing,there are two other things to regret.First,it's a shame he didn't get to direct more movies.You'd think after Tombstone he would have been offered more projects.Secondly,being a great storyteller,that he was never featured on any movie channel interviews.Whatever anecdotes he had could have been preserved.Instead we always hear thoughts from the same group of directors like Bogdonavich and Pollack.Maybe somebody should do a Table for Five show from the cigar club.
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Jesus, you'd think he said something about your mother. I thought you guys were supposed to be much more relaxed than us gun-toters. Have a donut and a beer and go play some hockey.
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im a Libbie and I liked RAMBO-at least the 1st one-then it degenerated into fantasyland of the kind that only a Con-artist-eu-CONservative would self-abuse himself over...
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Can't someone even eulogize a person that they were obviously very fond of without some of you immature fucks trying to be cute?
What a bunch of horses asses. Nice tribute, Moriarty and Hfuhruhurr. -
Apr 25, 2005 11:38:23 PM CDT
Nice heartfelt article, would have been (and worked) even better
by jackburton
As far as George Pan Cosmatos goes, oddly enough I just watched Tombstone last night, damn good film, well shot with a great cast (one of Cosmatos' strengths, all too often forgotten these days, was the ability to get great performances out of his cast)...it's amazing that he only got to make one more film after that (the so-so Shadow Conspiracy), it really is. And I don't care what anyone says, I really dug creature feature Leviathan (that reunited him with Peter Weller, star of the little seen and under appreciated Of Unknown Origin), and of course then there's Rambo. I'm a child of the eighties and I still love that movie. Pure kickass popcorn entertainment. Of the rest of his (quite short) directorial outings Cobra was (very) cheesy fun, Cassandra Crossing was solid for what it was, and his other couple of films I've never had the opportunity to see, but I'm sure I will, one day. He won't ever be remembered as one of the greats, but he will be remembered, and fondly, by film fans everywhere for a handful of his films and the enjoyment they gave us. May he rest in peace.
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Great action director. I will miss him.
As for the rest of you fuckshits who just have to be dicks, I hope you all die horrible fucking deaths. Cocksuckers. -
I'm a huge Rambo and Tombstone fan and Leviathan is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Sad news indeed, but a wonderful tribute. R.I.P. George.
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Great, goofy, creepy rat movie. I didn't realize Cosmatos directed it. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys movies where the put-upon hero goes completely apeshit and demolishes his house in order to get rid of the pesky rodent. You know, those movies. George P. Cosmatos, rest in peace and may your work live on.
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...has also passed away. Just thought I'd mention it.
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And it was the first movie I ever took my first girlfriend to see.
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...but RAMBO was just shit.
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Only recently started to realize what a great film Tombstone is. Doc Holiday's wink. Wyatt's walk into the crossfire.
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What was this surgery that he and Hfuhruhurr underwent?
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AND HELL'S COMIN WITH ME!!!
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And will someone PLEASE put up an obit for the late, very great Sir John Mills!!!! Anyone who could chug a beer take after take for 'Ice Cold in Alex' deserves everyone's attention!!!!
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Tombstone's Kurt Russell: "You tell him im coming and hell is coming with me you hear?! hell is coming with me!!" Great film; a rousing western.
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It rocked, and Peter Weller starred it it. WILLARD on acid - the ultimate rat monster film. Well made, technically, not a B film.
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I've enjoyed many of Mr. Cosmatos' works. He'll be missed.
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Cobra is one of the guiltiest of pleasures, as well as Leviathan. Tombstone - absolute classic!!! But we've forgotten Escape to Athena. Any WWII/Art Heist/Escape movie with Roger Moore, Richard Roundtree, Stephanie Powers, Elliot Gould and Telly Savalas deserves a shout out!!!
Plus it's goofy fun as well. -
Apr 26, 2005 9:49:20 AM CDT
Oh man, Cosmatos directed 'Escape to Athena'!!!!! I love that f
by big_bubbaloola
Wow...learn something new every day. Thanks George, you brighten up many a boring Sunday afternoon and bank holiday when I were a lad.
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Fuckin' A! & Escape to Athena might not be on the same level as Guns of Navaronne or The Great Escape, but it's one hell of a film. RIP
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Apr 26, 2005 3:46:02 PM CDT
George saw me as Nicely Nicely in a community theatre production
by vatoloco
He was there to support some kid actor in the show. He seemed like a kind man.But Shadow Conspiracy ripped 2 hours away from my life never to be given back.
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Best AICN typo ever.
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Tombstone and Cassandra Crossing were great films. In fact, I would have to say that Tombstone was one of the top ten westerns ever made. I also sort of liked Escape to Athena, which I saw as what would have happened if World War II had been fought in the '60s. Also, I certainly hope "Grave Kelly" was a typo for "Grace Kelly".
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Apr 26, 2005 6:44:01 PM CDT
Denki, thanks for letting me know about Sir John's passing
by harrisonsdad
What an accomplished actor. I remember back in the early '70s, on the night George C. Scott refused his Oscar for Patton, that John Mills was the only winning actor who actually showed up to get his award, not sure who the two women were (long time ago you know. He had tow beautiful daughters in Haley and Juliet. I remember having such a crush on Juliet when she did the "Nanny and the Professor" series with Richard Long.
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Despite Dr. Hfuhruhurr's absolute lack of knowledge about the Canadian medical system, it was a nice eulogy.
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...... I'm comin' to get you." Truly one of the great moments in film history. It was a shame to hear that Mr. Cosmatos had to undergo his eye surgery in a backwards socialist country like Canada, and not in a country like the good ol' US of A, where malpractice and botched surgery are completely unheard of, and where his HMO could have cupped him gently in their caring hands while he became well overnight with no feduciary worries at all. Alas, he will be missed, for he engendered the modern sensory overload action movie, which I love so dearly.
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Nice to see some love for Mills, and especially Ice Cold in Alex -- wonderful movie. No film in history ever made a glass of beer look so good. "Worth waiting for..."
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That brought a tear to my eye....
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Apr 27, 2005 3:38:15 AM CDT
Thanks Doc. For anyone who hasn't seen 'Ice cold in Alex'......
by big_bubbaloola
You can almost feel your skin blister from the heat of the desert in that film, even though the interiors were filmed in Elstree studios I think. Even if you dont see any other of his films, just see that one! British stiff upper lips all round!!
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Thanks for the flicks, dude. You will be missed. And thank you, Moriarty, for an excellant obit. guy deserved as much, & you brought it.
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Wow, that's a damn shame. I developed a weirdo crush on her after seeing Shadow of a Doubt and Mrs Miniver a couple of years ago.
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Tombstone is a great, thoroughly entertaining movie. Rambo II has one of the coolest scenes when the Russian (or was it Vietnamese) walked past the camera and then you see two eyes open within a natural wall of mud. I don't know how original that was, but it was the first time I saw it. Cobra, while awful, has one of the greatest cheese lines ever when Cobra confronts that group of punks blocking his parking space and he walks up to one who is smoking and tells him "that's bad for your health" and the punk responds "what", and then as he grabs the cigarette and tosses it down Cobra says "Me!"
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At least I think the punk was smoking. Its been a while.
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but most because of Val Kilmer's Doc Holloywood which could have defininly been attributed to the directing. The scene where Reese is waiting to face Jack Burton and Burton's going anyway, even though he knows he's going to die and a shadow comes up and it's Doc, and Reese is like like, "Oh fuck". Yeah, this cat is in my cool book for directors.
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May 01, 2005 4:23:05 PM CDT
A sad loss. I hope anyone who's currently enjoying this stupid
by movietool
I know, perhaps this is not the time and place to point it out, but there seem to be too many idiots running around smoking cigars nowadays who seem to be under some delusion that because they're not cigarettes and they're only enjoyed "once in a while," they're somehow not dangerous. Had he not lost his eyes a year earlier, his ensuing return to directing still would have been cut short. I just thought it needed to be said.
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Damn George. You made me go and watch Cobra all by myself even when I was 13 even though it was an 18 film. I remember trying to tan myself on my brother's tablelamp trying to darken my skin, thinking that it made me look 'mature', then trying to impersonate Sly Stallone at the ticket desk so I could sound older, only to have the scary ticket seller with the even scary growing hairy mole on her face, shake her head as soon as she saw me enter the cinema and for me to get told to fuck right off. I remember it well, me in my girly scared voice going "I AM 18, really." before I ran off shitting myself and crying like a twatbox. Then I finally got in the 2nd time, and ranted and raved to all my mates that it was the best film ever, only for them to see it when it came out on video and call me, 'some kind of wanker', and calling that film in their proffessional critic terms, a right pile of klingonshit. I thought that film was the best thing that summer, then again, I did think also think that getting a peck on the cheek by some skinny Joanne Whalley Kilmer lookalike girl after some crappy house party, was also the best thing that happened to me too. Only for my mates when they found out about it, to make my life a living hell by calling me Mr Templeton Peck for the rest of my life. Those fuckers, I wouldn't mind, if I still wasn't a Virgin at 32.
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Rambo was a psycho-fascist.
Tombstone was pretty good.
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Went and saw Tombstone together. It was a great moment for us. His love for Westerns and my love for movies and this terrific movie that brought us together. At least once a year we make it a point to sit down together and watch it. I'll always be thankful for Tombstone and the fact that movies can some time be more than what they seem..... Rest in Peace.
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