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Published on Thursday, August 19, 1999 - 3:53pm |
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FATHER GEEK salutes the replicant LEON, aka BRION JAMES!
Yet again ol FATHER GEEK is here to write about the passing of an all too familiar face.
BRION JAMES, born in 1945 in Beaumont, California (your writer was born in 1945 in
Beaumont, Texas), who played the scoundrel in a long chain of successful Hollywood
shockers has died way too soon at the age of 54. Brion, who characterized evil incarnate
as the blood-thirsty replicant Leon in persuit of Harrison Ford in "Blade Runner" and
greed personified as a self-serving studio honcho in "The Player", suffered a fatal heart
attack at his home in Malibu this past week.
James, who had emerged into the public pop culture consciousness through hard
work in around a 100 motion pictures since the 70s, had most often played a bad guy and
sadly many of his films were relegated to the obscurity of the video rental shelves of
America’s suburban strip malls without ever gracing a theater screen. However, James was
a versatile actor whose 1992 role in Robert Altman's "The Player", starring Tim Robbins,
helped him break out of the oblivion of his smaller roles. Although he was relatively
famous for his chiller-villainesque parts, he was actually an actor who had a broad range of
talent that was far too often not utilized correctly by the people incharge of his career. He
handled comedy very well in films like “Silverado”, "Cabin Boy", and “The Wrong Guys”. One of FATHER
GEEKS favorite characters created by Brion was that of the laughable redneck mob leader in the
Amazing Stories TV episode “Mummy Dearest” where he uttered the unforgettable line,
“Hanging’s for everybody!”
His big screen credits include a role in Luc Besson's science fiction adventure "The Fifth
Element", starring Bruce Willis (1997), "Tango & Cash”(89), “Red Heat”(88),
“DOA”(88), “Dead Man Out”(87), “The Postman Always Rings Twice”(81), “KISS
Meets the Phantom of the Park”(78), “Southern Comfort”, “Enemy Mine”, and several
other movies that were under the guidance of explotation director and close friend Philippe Mora, including ``A Breed Apart'' with Kathleen
Turner (1984) and a hilarious comic turn in ``Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills”
which he also produced. He also appeared with Nolte and Murphy in the action
crime-comedy films ``48 Hours'' (1982) and ``Another 48 Hours'' (1990).
``This is the first sequel I've ever been in because I rarely live througha film,'' he
facetiously told the L A Times about his part in the the second of the highly successful
films. ``I've been boiled in oil; I've had my head ripped off by a freeway overpass; I've
been thrown off a cliff. ... I've killed a lot of people, too.''
Brion did tons of Television work also, including roles on “Highlander”,
“Millennium”, “The Magnificent Seven”, “M.A.N.T.I.S.”, “Tales from the Crypt”, and
several appearances on “Chips”. He did voice work in animation also. Like in the “Spawn”
TV series, the “Feeding Time” episode of Superman, and the “Joker’s Wild” episode of
Batman.
In most fans minds, however, he is best remembered as the nervous replicant Leon,
who issued forth the chilling line: "Wake up ... time to die" in the futuristic detective
thriller "Blade Runner" . To many of us that's one of the most memorable moments in
sci-fi filmdom. Farewell, Brion; your fans are going to really miss you. I know that the Knowles
household and the Headquarter's staff of AICN will for sure!
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Reader Talkback
R.I.P. by TheMage | Aug 21st, 1999 02:26:12 PM | Wake up ...time to die by Brendan3 | Aug 21st, 1999 02:26:27 PM | farewell, dear sir by nightsir | Aug 21st, 1999 02:30:21 PM | My deepest sympathies.... by Cineman | Aug 21st, 1999 03:09:57 PM | He was cool in Striking
Distance by Obscure Homage | Aug 21st, 1999 03:21:36 PM | Cool actor. He'll be missed
(n/m) by Sterling Wolfe | Aug 21st, 1999 04:32:13 PM | Brion James, thank you... by ThePantingMenace | Aug 21st, 1999 04:32:56 PM | Painful having an itch you
can't scratch. by gsolo | Aug 21st, 1999 04:41:20 PM | REST IN PEACE GOVEN'A
!!!!!!!!!!! by CLINTSeye | Aug 21st, 1999 08:40:15 PM | A Great Villan by alpha | Aug 21st, 1999 09:02:14 PM | woah by Loser | Aug 21st, 1999 09:05:56 PM | Brion James by Kiwi-1 | Aug 21st, 1999 09:28:24 PM | Brion James by Pilot | Aug 21st, 1999 09:34:35 PM | First J.T., now this. by cds | Aug 21st, 1999 10:04:04 PM | Crimewave by dfpelican | Aug 21st, 1999 11:52:52 PM | Brion James by monroe | Aug 22nd, 1999 12:34:53 PM | Brion James, a fans
perspective... by Severen | Aug 22nd, 1999 08:49:42 PM | The Great Brion James by Justin Sane | Aug 25th, 1999 01:07:14 AM | Sad day by Leon Kowalski | Aug 31st, 1999 12:55:27 PM | Brion James was an actor. He
died! He died!.... by Wolfpack | Aug 27th, 2006 08:37:19 PM | I was thinking of a scene from
The Simpsons. by Wolfpack | Aug 29th, 2006 08:08:32 PM |
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