美国国家公共电台 NPR Harry Dean Stanton, A Supporting Actor Who Became A Star, Dies At 91

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Harry 1 Dean Stanton has died at the age of 91. He played supporting roles for decades. And then, as NPR's Ted 2 Robbins tells us, he became a cult 3 favorite.

(SOUNDBITE OF RY COODER'S "PARIS, TEXAS")

TED ROBBINS, BYLINE 4: The year was 1984. The film was Wim Wenders's "Paris, Texas." As Ry Cooder's guitar plays, the movie opens on a thin, weathered man wearing an old suit and a red baseball cap wandering the desert with an empty water jug 5. It's Harry Dean Stanton in his first lead role at age 58. He's Travis Henderson, a beat down guy who, jealous of his wife, took their son and left years ago. He comes back to find her in a Houston Peep Show, where he delivers a 10-minute monologue 6.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PARIS, TEXAS")

HARRY DEAN STANTON: (As Travis Henderson) I knew these people...

NASTASSJA KINSKI: (As Jane Henderson) What people?

ROBBINS: Travis talks through a one-way mirror to his wife, played by Nastassja Kinski. She can't see him. But, gradually, she realizes it's her husband telling her the story of his life.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PARIS, TEXAS")

STANTON: (As Travis Henderson) He started thinking that she was seeing other men on the sly.

ROBBINS: They reunite. Then mother and son reunite. Then after decades as a character actor, Harry Dean Stanton became a star. He was born in Kentucky to a tobacco farmer father and a hairdresser mother. He studied theater at the University of Kentucky. He served in the Navy in World War II, then went to Hollywood after. With his deep-set eyes and hawk 7 nose, he got cast over and over as an outlaw 8 or an oddball. More than a hundred TV and film roles followed, from "Cool Hand Luke" to "The Godfather: Part II" to the first "Alien" in 1979, where he was Brett, a tight-lipped spaceship crew member.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ALIEN")

YAPHET KOTTO: (As Parker) He can always get to a doctor when we get back home.

STANTON: (As Brett) Right.

SIGOURNEY WEAVER 9: (As Ripley) Whenever he says anything, you say, right, Brett. You know that?

STANTON: (As Brett) Right.

ROBBINS: Of course, Stanton gets eaten alive by the alien monster. That's the way it was until "Paris, Texas." Then also in 1984 came the cult classic "Repo Man."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "REPO MAN")

STANTON: (As Bud) Never broke into a car, never hotwired a car.

ROBBINS: Harry Dean Stanton was the repo man Bud, schooling 10 young Emilio Estevez's character Otto.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "REPO MAN")

STANTON: (As Bud) I shall not cause harm to any vehicle, nor the personal contents thereof, nor through inaction let that vehicle or the personal contents thereof come to harm. That's what I call the repo code, kid.

ROBBINS: Once in a while, he played a normal guy - Molly Ringwald's dad in "Pretty In Pink." OK, that's pretty much it for normal guys. Stanton was in six David Lynch movies. And not too long ago, he played the polygamist cult leader Roman Grant on HBO's "Big Love."

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "BIG LOVE")

STANTON: (Singing) Glory, glory - hallelujah. On the pulpit of Juniper Creek 11.

ROBBINS: That singing - well, music was Harry Dean Stanton's other love. He sang and played harmonica on stage and off.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "PARTLY FICTION")

STANTON: (As himself, singing) I'm going where the sun keeps shining through the pouring rain.

ROBBINS: That's from a 2012 documentary about Stanton by Sophie Huber called "Partly Fiction." In one scene, his friend, director David Lynch, asks Harry a couple of deep questions. The answers were sort of Buddhist 12 and very Harry Dean Stanton.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "PARTLY FICTION")

DAVID LYNCH: (As himself) How would you describe yourself?

STANTON: (As himself) As nothing. There is no self.

(LAUGHTER)

LYNCH: How would you like to be remembered?

STANTON: It doesn't matter.

ROBBINS: It may not have mattered to him, but the rest of us will remember Harry Dean Stanton as a singular presence on screen. Ted Robbins, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EVERYBODY'S TALKIN'")

STANTON: (Singing) I'm going where the sun keeps shining through the pouring rain, going where the weather suits my clothes.